Living organisms form biological minerals during biomineralization, where inorganic elements can selectively deposit on specific organic macromolecules under precise control. The process can be divided into biocalcification or biosilicification based on the inorganic component, with collagen used as a universal template. During intrafibrillar mineralization, collagen matrices that are destined for mineralization in vertebrates contain surface bound matrix proteins. Understanding the complex mechanisms of intrafibrillar mineralization to form hard collagenous tissue such as bone and dentin is of significant interest in biomechanics, with decades of studies conducted to mimic or model the process in lab. In a recent study, now published in Science Advances, Q. Song and co-workers at the interdisciplinary Departments of Biology, Applied Physics, Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Sciences and Dental Medicine, in China, the U.S. and Italy, have developed a biomechanical model to examine the collagen-ligand interactions contributing to intrafibrillar mineralization.
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