Chemical modification of biomaterials from nature

Abstract

Protein modification is an area of an intense research and many methods have been developed with applications in fields including biology, chemistry and medicine, as they are powerful tools for studying protein expression and localization, and engineering the functions of protein both in vitro and in live cells or in vivo to create new biocatalysts and bioanalytical tools. There are different high precision protein modification methods which can be roughly divided into two categories. The first involve the use of a genetic modification system and the second is based on the labeling of expressed proteins taking advantages of the chemical reactivity of the amino acid side chains. As they occur after the protein biosynthesis step, these chemical modifications, are commonly referred to as post-translational modifications (PTMs). Natural polysaccharides and their derivatives are emerging polymers in pharmaceutical and biomedical fields such as tissue engineering, particularly for cartilage, drug delivery devices and gel-entrapment systems for cells immobilization.