Urolithiasis: What can we learn from a Nature which dysfunctions?

AbstractLearning from Mother Nature constitutes a major intellectual movement encompassing music, architecture and chemistry. In this contribution, we would like to assess the symmetry and the interface present in pathological calcifications in order to propose a bioinspired approach. We present an overview on the observations made on kidney stone growth at the macroscopic scale. The results are discussed at the molecular scale and examples are proposed to implement the biological asymmetrical growth in pathological calcifications in biomimetic strategies such as in in vitro microfluidic experiments