Carl Holt's abstract

Seminar - Thursday 4th November 11am

Opal Theatre, Building 83, ANSTO

"Equilibrium complexes of proteins and minerals and their role in biomineralisation"

Dr Carl Holt

University of Glasgow

Many organisms comprise soft and hard (mineralised) tissues but explaining why these two tissue types can co-exist without the soft tissues becoming mineralised or the hard tissues demineralised has not been easy. For calcium phosphate and calcium carbonate chemistries, a possible solution is to form an equilibrium complex of the intermediate amorphous phase with a protein or peptide. Thermodynamic and structural models of some example complexes will be described and it will be shown how soft and hard tissues can coexist with relative ease when they are permeated by a biofluid containing such a complex.

Dr Carl Holt's website:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/stafflist///?action=person&id=35ddefe1849e
http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/biochemistrycellbiology/researchinterests/carlholt/

_{Updated 17 August 2010}