Biomineralogy and Extreme Biomimetics

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hermann Ehrlich
• Subject Area: Synthesis and Properties of Functional Materials ; Biomaterials
• Term: from 2012 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 221568524

• Final Report Year: 2019

Final Report Abstract

Psychrophilic calcification occurs in both unicellular pro- and eukaryotic organisms as well as in multicellular animals like bryozoans, corals, molluscs, crustaceans, echinoderms, and fish. They are able to synthetize their calcium carbonate and/or calcium phosphate-containing skeletons under frigid environmental conditions.There is a lack of knowledge about mechanisms of calcification at temperatures near the freezing point. Low temperatures lead to exponential decreases in chemical reaction rates. Consequently, the thermodynamic aspects of biomineralization in the hard tissues of psychrophilic biocalcifiers are of principal scientific interest. For the first time selected hard tissues (teeth, bones, otoliths and scales) from diverse ice fish species have been studies with respect to identification of naturally occurring calcium phosphate phases. These biological materials have been characterized by broad variety of modern bioanalytical and physico-chemical techniques in order to determine their morphology, composition, and structure. Our experiments show with strong evidence the occurrence of crystalline hydroxyapatite within the mineralized tissues of icefish species like C. gunnari and D. mawsoni. This suggests the existence of naturally occurring mechanisms for calcification and the developing of crystalline phases at temperatures near the freezing point of sea water. During the project time, we succeed in development of novel setup for the production calcium phosphate-based composites using selected organic matrices under temperature of minus 2°C. For the first time the formation of dicalciumphosphatedihydrate (DCPD) under extreme biomimetics conditions using ice fish collagen in vitro has been confirmed.

Publications

• (2016) Marine Sponges: Chemicobiological and Biomedical Applications. Springer India, pp. 381
  Pallela R., Ehrlich H. (Eds.)
  
• (2016) Multiphase biomineralization: enigmatic invasive siliceous diatoms produce crystalline calcite. Advanced Functional Materials 26:2503–2510
  Ehrlich H., Motylenko M., Sundareshwar P.V., Ereskovsky A.V., Zglobicka I., Noga T., Plocinski T., Tsurkan M., Wyroba E., Suski S., Bilski H., Wysokowski M., Stöcker H., Makarova A., Vyalikh D., Walter J., Molodtsov S.L., Bazhenov V.V., Petrenko I., Langer E., Richter A., Niederschlag E., Pisarek M., Springer A., Gelinsky M., Rafaja D., Witkowski A., Meyer D.C., Jesionowski T., Kurzydlowski K.J.
  
• (2016) Supercontinuum generation in naturally occurring glass sponges spicules. Advanced Optical Materials 4(10):1608–1613
  Ehrlich H., Maldonado M., Parker A.R., Kulchin Y.N., Schilling J., Köhler B., Skrzypczak U., Simon P., Reiswig H.M., Tsurkan M., Brunner E., Voznesenskiy S.S., Bezverbny A.V., Golik S.S., Nagorny I.G., Vyalikh D.V., Makarova A.A., Molodtsov S.L., Kummer K., Mertig M., Erler C., Kurek D.V., Bazhenov V.V., Natalio F., Kovalev A.E., Gorb S.N., Stelling A.L., Heitmann J., Born R., Meyer D.C., Tabachnick K.R.
  
• (2017) Extreme Biomimetics. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp. 276
  Ehrlich H. (Ed.)
  
• (2017) On chemistry of γ–chitin. Carbohydrate Polymers 176:177–186
  Kaya M., Mutajba M., Ehrlich H., Salaberria A.M., Baran T., Amemiya C.T., Galli R., Akyuz L., Sargin I., Labidi J.
  
• (2018) Biosilica as source for inspiration in biological materials science. American Mineralogist 103(5):665–691
  Wysokowski M., Jesionowski T., Ehrlich H.
  
• (2018) Collagens of poriferan origin. Marine Drugs 16:79
  Ehrlich H., Wysokowski M., Żółtowska–Aksamitowska S., Petrenko I., Jesionowski T.
  
• (2018) Extreme biomimetics: carbonized 3D spongin scaffold as a novel support for nanostructured manganese oxide (IV) and its electrochemical applications. Nano Research 11(8):4199–4214
  Szatkowski T., Kopczyński K., Motylenko M., Borrmann H., Mania B., Graś M., Lota G., Bazhenov V.V., Rafaja D., Roth F., Weise J., Langer E., Wysokowski M., Żółtowska– Aksamitowska S., Petrenko I., Molodtsov S.L., Hubálková J., Aneziris C.G., Joseph Y., Stelling A.L., Ehrlich H., Jesionowski T.
  
• (2018) Marine spongin: naturally prefabricated 3D scaffold–based biomaterial. Marine Drugs 16:88
  Jesionowski T., Norman M., Żółtowska–Aksamitowska S., Petrenko I., Yoseph Y., Ehrlich H.
  
• (2018) Sonochemical synthesis of terbium tungstate for developing high power supercapacitors with enhanced energy densities. Ultrasonics Sonochemistry 45:189–196
  Sobhani–Nasab A., Rahimi–Nasrabadi M., Reza Naderi H., Poirmohamadien V., Ahmadi F., Reza Ganjali M., Ehrlich H.