Interdependence of Structure and Function in Biological Materials
Peter Fratzl holds Lecture Series for an Interdisciplinary Audience at HU
Biological materials are built with a limited number of building blocks, based on polysaccharides, proteins, and minerals. Copyright: Julia Blumenthal
In 2021, Cluster Co-Director Peter Fratzl gave a digital lecture series at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The lecture series started on April 13th, 2021 and was addressed to a pluridisciplinary audience, including sciences, design and cultural studies. All required basics from biophysics and biochemistry to mechanics were provided. Biological materials adapted their structure to functional needs. The lectures introduced relevant structural features from molecular to macroscopic scales using examples for materials based on proteins or polysaccharides, in particular cellulose and chitin. Some biological materials – like bone – were reinforced with minerals. The importance of hierarchical assemblies of building blocks, such as fibers and tessellations were discussed.
Schedule (every second Tuesday, 4:15–5:45 pm):
- 13 April: Introduction – Hierarchical Structure Versus Function, Adaptive Growth
- 27 April: Protein Sequence, Conformation and Assembly: From Filaments to Materials
- 11 May: Shape Change Materials from Plants
- 25 May: Bone Structure and Material Adaptation
- 08 June: Spider Cuticle as a Versatile Toolbox
- 22 June: Mechanical Behavior of Tessellations
- 06 July: Summary, Conclusion and Outlook
More Information can be found here: https://agnes.hu-berlin.de/
Zoom Conference