Effects of Mineral Elements on the Environment

Dear colleagues,

The field of medical mineralogy and geochemistry is an emergent and extremely interdisciplinary area of study. Geochemistry and mineralogy play an essential role in cross-disciplinary research, with a view to understanding not just how humans and geomaterials interact, but also how inorganic solid precipitates are formed, normally and pathologically, in vivo. Among the research methods and strategies can be found: studies of the solubility and stability of biomaterials within biofluids or their proxies and earth materials (i.e., studies of thermodynamic equilibrium), the kinetic study of apposite reactions that take place under conditions which are pertinent to human bodies, studies of molecular modelling and of the geospatial and statistical, the aim being an evaluation of how certain chronic diseases can be activated by environmental factors in certain individuals or populations with a genetic predisposition.

Medical mineralogy and geochemistry is acknowledged to be an important field, yet little attention has been paid to it by scientists, administrators or the public. The aim of this volume is a) to focus on a selection of current challenges and research opportunities, and b) to encourage knowledge transfer between geochemists and mineralogists whose work concerns medical problems and medical scientists who study problems touching on biominerals and geomaterials.

Cases in point may comprise tooth and bone biomineralization, bioactive, biocompatible ceramics and their design for use in dental and orthopaedic implants, artery calcification and kidney stone formation, the effect on the lungs of inhaling dust particles, developing biosensors via oxide-encapsulated living cells, environmental transport of pathological viruses and prions, the potential environmental-genetic link in neurodegenerative diseases, the pathological results of heavy metal contamination and speciation exposure pathways, and associated applications of tissue engineering.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Applied Sciences.

Dr. Marina Cabral Pinto
Dr. Amit Kumar
Guest Editors

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• Toxicology
• rare earth elements
• health risk
• environmental chemistry
• biogeochemical
• ecological health
• medical mineralogy
• soil health