Microparticulate biomolecules by mild CaCO ₃ templating

The article reviews recent studies on template assisted preparation of microparticles composed of proteins. The main line of development is focused on calcium carbonate (CaCO3) as microscopic sacrificial templates due to their biocompatibility and mild decomposition conditions that are mandatory in order to process fragile biomolecules. Consequently, we discuss several recent methods toward the preparation of protein particles via CaCO3 templating as well as synthesis of the templates. We emphasize how the physical and chemical properties of the template and proteins are exploited in order to obtain pure microparticulate protein therapeutics and multicomponent particle systems. We report on strategies that allow the tuning of material properties like catalytic activity, mechanical properties as well as capacity for a pharmaceutical payload. Finally, we give an overview on the perspectives of CaCO3 templated particles in biomedical applications.