Through billions of years of evolution, living organisms have developed a wide variety of functional polymers to cope with a number of diverse and complex biological functions. These range from very general structural capacity to manyfold physiological roles and sometimes very specific tasks. Among these, interaction with light (absorption, emission, diffraction, also through the generation of nanopatterns), ionic and electronic transport, adhesion, protection. Such features are the result of a diverse range of molecular and supramolecular architectures which in some cases still have to be fully unravelled. Melanins, cellulose, lignine, biosilica, silk and many structural proteins are some examples of the wide variety of natural polymers that have been recently exploited in a number of applications ranging from optoelectronics and photonics to biomedicine.

Photonics, electronics and nanotechnology based on biological materials can take advantage not only from in vivo production and / or extraction from natural sources, but also from chemical modification that can build-in additional functions. Moreover, hybrid architectures of artificial components (e.g. semiconducting polymers, quantum dots) with bio-polymers can be obtained not only by self-assembly or chemical modifications, but can be also produced by “living foundries” or biofactories.

The symposium will focus on the materials side rather than on devices, and applications will be covered to complement and illustrate the underpinning chemical and physical aspects. These will include: (bio)synthesis, chemical or biological modifications of the materials, generation of new bio-hybrid systems, extraction, processing and assembly, ultimately unraveling the physical properties of complex chemical and biological systems. Implementation in devices and applications ranging from photonics and electronics to bio-medicine and energy will be covered with emphasis on material properties and structure. In addition, this symposium would be an inspiring forum stimulating the progress of a new common language bridging physics, chemistry, biology, materials science and engineering. It is expected to attract academic and industrial researchers willing to contribute to and take part in the fast progress of this new area that will likely have an important impact on future technological developments of materials science.

biomaterial chemical composition interface macromolecular structure microstructure multiscale nanostructure optical properties polymer porosity