Potsdam biomaterials for dentists at the Charité
MPIKG | Two basic researchers from the Department of Biomaterials are involved in the interdisciplinary research project “InterDent”. Its goal is to make dental fillings or crowns more durable in the future. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding this project with 2.1 million euros for an initial period of three years. “Together with our dental colleagues at Charité, we will investigate how mineralized biofilms such as tartar interact with artificial filling materials.
Ultimately, this fundamental knowledge will help to produce the materials in such a way that they prevent the deposition of tartar,” says materials scientist Dr. Cécile Bidan, research group leader in the Biomaterials Department at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPIKG). Together with Dr. Laura Zorzetto, biomedical engineer at the MPIKG, she investigates the formation, growth and mineralization of biofilms that are naturally formed during the bacterial colonization of tooth surfaces and fillings.
The special feature of the “InterDent” research project is that basic researchers and dentists are working together to develop new materials in order to quickly create materials that are suitable for practical use. The benefit is quite reciprocal. “This project not only enables the translation of results from basic research into practice, but also the inspiration of fundamental research through clinical questions,” says Prof. Dr. Peter Fratzl, Director of the Biomaterials Department at the MPIKG.
The scientists and dentists use tools from materials engineering with approaches from dental research to improve existing materials for tooth reconstruction. In the case of dental caries, for example, filling materials made of plastic, metal alloys and various ceramics are used, the durability of which varies greatly. In this context, it is important to learn from the interactions between strongly adhering tartar and reconstructed tooth surfaces.
“InterDent” is the name of a research cooperation between the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces Potsdam, the Dental Clinic of the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Technical University of Berlin and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. In total, the research project consists of four interdisciplinary sub-projects coordinated by Dr. Paul Zaslansky (Charité) and Dr. Claudia Fleck (TU). Dr. Bidan heads the described subproject together with Prof. Sebastian Paris, Scientific Director of the Institute of Dental, Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine at Charité.
Photo: (from left to right) Dr. Laura Zorzetto, biomedical engineer at the MPIKG and Dr. Cécile Bidan, materials scientist and group leader in the Biomaterials Department at the MPIKG