Throughout my career, I have been interested in learning lessons from mother nature, in particular, to find how biological hard tissues are formed, with hierarchical structures and multifunctional properties, that are unprecedented in engineered systems. Discovering that it is the proteins that control materials formation in biological systems, our lab GEMSEC (Genetically Engineered Materials Science and Engineering Center) has developed a new field of molecular biomimetics in which genetically designed and engineered solid-binding peptides been used as molecular tool sets in nanotechnology, bionanotechnology, and nanomedicine for the last 20+ years, demonstrated in hundreds of publications in the scientific literature.

 

Using genetic engineering, molecular biology, machine learning, and materials engineering, the lab developed a patented protocol to derive short peptides from large functional proteins. One of the implementations of this approach has been the design of peptide derived from amelogenin, the major protein in hard tissue formation in human teeth, e.g., enamel (crown of tooth) and cementum (protective cover of the root of tooth). Called ADPs, i.e., amelogenin-derived peptides, the lab has demonstrated in bench tests, animal studies and, most recently, through human efficacy studies that various dental formulations, such as aqueous solutions, tablets, gels, and pastes, can result in the first commercial application of a peptide to guide remineralization of teeth. I am so excited to share this innovation with the world and change the way we think about oral care.

 

Dr. Mehmet Sarikaya