Guest Speaker : Dr Mason Dean
Associate Professor, Department of Infectious Diseases & Public Health, City University of Hong Kong
Mason Dean is a marine biologist, zoologist and anatomist, studying skeletal development, structure and function in vertebrate animals, but with a particular focus on (and affection for) sharks and rays. He is currently an Associate Professor at City University of Hong Kong, as well as a Guest Scientist at in the Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (where he previously led a research workgroup) and an Associate Investigator in the Humboldt University’s Excellence Cluster ‘Matters of Activity’, collaborating with designers, engineers and architects to study anatomy.
Architectured marine biomaterials: from growth to multifunctionality
Abstract:
Humans are drawn to patterns and hierarchies in Nature, copying them in decoration and architecture (mosaic, roofs, walls). Natural patterns, however, are rarely only aesthetic and, since evolution works to optimize a variety of factors at once, natural structural systems are always multi-functional. In my group, we combine biology, engineering and design approaches to explore ‘form-function’ relationships in biological materials, from tissue- to organismal levels. Using a variety of material characterization and imaging approaches, we address development and regulation of mineralized skeletal tissues; how levels of structural hierarchy mediate mechanical properties; and the evolutionary relationships between ecology, anatomy and performance. Our material model systems are equally diverse, from the teeth of sharks specializing on hard foods to an oddly acellular fish bone, from the filtering tools of massive oceanic sharks to the curious armoured cartilage of sharks and rays. Our results frame form-function spaces for understanding growth and mechanics in natural tissues, while offering inspiration and structural templates for multi-functional, bio mimicked composite materials.
