Synthetic biopolymer
Synthetic biopolymers are human-made copies of biopolymers obtained by abiotic chemical routes. Synthetic biopolymer of different chemical nature have been obtained, including polysaccharides, glycoproteins, peptides and proteins, polyhydroxoalkanoates, polyisoprenes. Synthesis of biopolymer. The high molecular weight of biopolymers make their synthesis inherently laborious. Further challenges can arise from specific spatial arrangement adopted by the natural biopolymer, which may be vital for its properties/activity but not easily reproducible in the synthetic copy. Despite this, chemical approaches to obtain biopolymer are highly desirable to overcome issues arising from low abundance of the target biopolymer in Nature, the need  for cumbersome isolation processes or high batch-to-batch variability or inhomogeneity of the naturally-sourced species. Examples of biopolymers obtained by chemoenzymatic routes. Human-made biopolymers obtained through approaches that involve genetic engineering or recombinant DNA technology are different from synthetic biopolymers and should be referred to as artificial biopolymer ("e.g.", artificial protein, artificial polynucleotide, etc.). Applications of synthetic biopolymers. As their natural analogues, synthetic biopolymers find applications in numerous fields, including materials for commodities, drug delivery, tissue engineering, therapeutic and diagnostic applications.