The innovative design of Diamond’s Dual Imaging and Diffraction (DIAD) beamline provides valuable opportunities for biomedical materials science
Diamond is home to an ever-evolving array of beamlines and instruments, allowing scientists from a wide variety of disciplines to collect high-quality, high-resolution data for their groundbreaking research. In materials science, X-ray imaging and tomography experiments can determine the 3D microstructure of samples, while X-ray diffraction techniques offer the phase composition and stress distribution. Most synchrotron beamlines are designed to offer one or the other, with a few that can do both – but not at the same time. Switching between the modes can be complicated and time consuming. Diamond’s Dual Imaging and Diffraction beamline (DIAD) provides both imaging and diffraction capabilities in one instrument. Its novel dual beam design operates with two independent beams meeting at the sample position, one setup for imaging and one for diffraction. By constantly switching between the two modes, DIAD enables in situ and in operando measurements and time-resolved studies. Understanding the complex structure of tooth enamel, the factors involved in its decay and potential strategies for its remineralisation exemplify some outstanding tasks in biomedical materials science that can benefit from the dual beamline approach. In work recently published in Chemical & Biomedical Imaging, a group of researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Birmingham (led by Professor Alexander Korsunsky) detail a proof-of-concept study that demonstrated how the unique capabilities of DIAD can be used to consider different options for remineralisation and to grade them in terms of how well they work.
Teeth: nature’s nanostructured marvels
Human teeth are a miracle of biological engineering. Their remarkable strength and resilience come from a combination of hard external enamel over an interior of flexible dentine. On the microscopic scale, enamel is built from nanoscale hydroxyapatite (HAp) crystallites, bundled together into micron-scale rods with surrounding inter-rod regions. Delving deeper into the extraordinary structure of teeth provides valuable insights for the development of strong, bio-inspired materials. However, as we’re all aware, teeth aren’t impervious, and can rot away under the onslaught of an acid-provoking modern diet. Unlike those of some other animals (such as rodents), human teeth don’t regenerate. Once they are damaged, we must face the pain of a “drill and fill” repair, or the fitting of synthetic prosthetic replacements.
Project lead Prof Alexander Korsunsky, from the University of Oxford, said:
Teeth are a fascinating example of nature’s hierarchical structuring from the nanoscale. Whereas bone and dentine, the inner part of the tooth, remain vascularised and living – meaning constantly renewing, changing, rebuilding, remodelling – enamel is one part of the human body that doesn’t. Nature effectively builds pieces of stone subjected to extreme thermal, chemical and mechanical attack, that can last up to 100 years. In our first major research project we set out to understand the processes involved in dental caries and how they interact with the structure of teeth. Now that another major four-year project has been awarded, we are out to explore what could be done to reverse caries and remineralise enamel.
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