Dental materials science: HZB is part of a research project funded by DFG
Artificial and natural interzones on a tooth restored with non-degradable biomaterials are exposed to mechanical (left: stresses acting in compression, tension and shear) and biological challenges (right: bacterial attachment, penetration, and other interactions with biological media). © P. Zaslansky/Charité.
How can dental restorations – such as fillings and crowns – be made to last longer? A new research group centered at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Technische Universität (TU) Berlin plans to address this topic by utilizing approaches from both materials science and dentistry. The interdisciplinary ‘InterDent’ research group is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). It will receive an initial funding of €2.1 million Euro over three years. Partners also include the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPI-KG).
The goal of the team is to create better dental materials by shedding light on the ways in which different materials interact with the surrounding tissues. One of the sub-projects aims at predicting the way in which dentine (the hard bony tissue that makes up the tooth´s core) changes over time, depending on the material used for the filling to which it is attached. Employing non-destructive, highly sensitive, high-resolution technology, the researchers will study the microstructure and chemical characteristics of dentine, tracking progressive changes over time as part of an aging process known as ‘sclerosis’. “We want to use this approach in order to develop a model of sclerotic dentine which will enable us to gain a better understanding of changes in its structure and composition,” says Dr. Ioanna Mantouvalou of the HZB, who leads the sub-project together with Dr. Paul Zaslansky, the research group’s spokesperson, who is project leader at Charité’s Institute of Dental, Oral and Maxillary Medicine.
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- BESSY II: High-resolution insights into individual biomolecules and catalystsVery small biological samples and even individual biomolecules can now be examined under near-physiological conditions with high confidence at the BESSY II infrared beamline with a newly validated and improved technique: The nanoscale infrared spectroscopy (s-SNOM) with ultra-thin silicon-based membranes. An international team demonstrated after an initial proof of concept, that high-resolution (a few tens of nanometres) nano-IR measurements reliably match expected far-field IR spectra in an aqueous environment. This methodological advance provides a solid foundation for studying biomaterials or observing catalytic processes in a liquid environment.
- New method shows how molecular switches are influenced by their neighborsResearchers at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Helmholtz Centre Berlin (HZB) have, for the first time, been able to directly observe how the environment surrounding a molecular switch influences its electronic structure. Molecular switches are molecules that can be switched between two states by external influences such as changes in temperature—similar to a switch with the positions »On« and »Off«. Such molecules are being investigated as potential building blocks for future data storage devices or sensor materials. Using magnetic-field-dependent terahertz spectroscopy, the researchers have now, for the first time, been able to distinguish whether neighbouring molecules in a material are in the same or different states. The results have been published in the journal »Angewandte Chemie International Edition«.