GEPIs-HA hybrid: a novel biomaterial for tooth repair

Dental caries are slowly progressive and infectious disease, which result in localized dissolution and destruction of the calcified tissues. In routine clinical treatments, microleakage following with secondary caries usually occurs due to the discrepancy in physico-chemical property between filled materials and tooth. Ideal filling materials for tooth defect should be similar to the structure and chemical composition of natural tooth. Recently, molecular biomimetics developed a novel nanotechnology through biology, which fabricate materials based on molecular recognition between genetically engineered peptides for inorganics (GEPIs) and inorganic crystal. Since GEPIs can be used in the assembly of functional nanostructures, we hypothesis that an analogue of dental hard tissue, hybrid of GEPIs and HA crystal, might be engineered using the recognition properties between GEPIs and HA crystal.