Universal route to cell micropatterning using an amphiphilic comb polymer

Micropatterning of localized chemical or biochemical domains has the potential to become a powerful tool to control the behavior of anchorage-dependent cells. However, several problems, such as the limited types of substrates that can be successfully patterned with cells and the lack of reliable, long-term retention of cellular patterns under physiological conditions need to be solved for cellular patterning to become widely applicable for cell-based biosensors, biomaterials, and high-throughput drug screening assay. This paper reports on a simple and generic method to micropattern surfaces with an amphiphilic comb polymer presenting short oligoethylene glycol side chains that enables long-term, spatially resolved attachment and growth of mammalian cells in a biologically relevant milieu on a variety of substrates.

Duke Scholars

Author Ashutosh Chilkoti Biomedical Engineering