As of September 20, the research project “Hierarchical Self-Assembled Composite Material Design,” of which Professor MATSUMOTO Takuya of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences serves as the representative, was selected as a new research project for the 2022 Strategic Basic Research Program (CREST) of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
　
The research area adopted this time was “Precise Material Science for Degradation and Stability” (research supervisor: TAKAHARA Atsushi, Specially Appointed Professor of the Research Center for Negative Emission Technology, Kyushu University), which was established in 2021. The strategic goal for this research area is to achieve precise control of the binding and decomposition for realization of resource circulation, through the development of materials whose decomposition can be easily controlled, research on the functionalization of these materials by controlling their hierarchical structures, and environmentally friendly methods to control degradation and stabilization of materials. The aim of this research area is to achieve precise control of decomposition, degradation, and stabilization of materials, as well as to establish precise materials science for the development of sustainable materials with freely controllable degradability and stability, which are the ultimate contradictory physical properties of materials.
　
This research will be carried out over a five-and-a-half year period from October 2022 to March 2028. For this project, Professor MATSUMOTO will study the occurrence, growth and degradation using living bones as reference, which are known as the ultimate composite, and aim to understand the composition of organic/inorganic hybrids and the self-organization that governs physical properties, and develop a scientific theory.
　
This project is a team-based research project to promote task-achieving basic research to achieve strategic targets set by the national government, generate innovation in science and technology, and create innovative technology seeds. Okayama University has formed a team with Kyoto University and Hokkaido University for this research and, using the acceptance of this project as a trigger, will accelerate the development of new functional biomaterials and construction of new bio-ecosystems.