Biomineralization

The book presents a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding mechanisms regulating the formation of mineral in vertebrate skeletal and dental tissues. The focus of the book is directed toward the mineralization process, an evolutionarily conserved system in which cells synthesize a complex and unique extracellular matrix into which mineral is deposited. Regulatory control is viewed though lenses that emphasize the genetic, physical-chemical, biochemical, structural, cellular and extracellular aspects of the mineralization process as they relate to crystal nucleation, growth and maturation. Throughout the book, defects in regulation at the genetic and transcriptional levels are linked to the numerous clinical problems associated with the mineralization of bone, cartilage, tendon, tooth, and soft tissues.

For more than fifty years scientists have been concerned with the interrelationships of Earth and life. Over the past decade, however, geobiology, the name given to this interdisciplinary endeavour, has emerged as an exciting and rapidly expanding field, fuelled by advances in molecular phylogeny