Magnetic remote actuation of soft materials is attractive for applications such as transforming materials and medical robots. However, due to manufacturing limitations, microscale magnetoactive devices are scarce and light-based additive manufacturing methods, despite achieving microscale resolution, struggle with particle-induced light scattering. Moreover, large hard-magnetic microparticles restrict ultimate feature sizes and deformation of soft-magnetic nanoparticle composites […]
Diseases or injuries that affect neuromuscular tissues severely impact human health, motivating the development of in vitro models of the motor control system. Current platforms either have limited reproducibility or require complex fabrication protocols that preclude high-resolution imaging and scalable functional analysis. We have developed a one-step method for fabricating an all-hydrogel limb-on-a-chip that addresses […]
Two-photon polymerization (2PP) has garnered increasing attention for engineering hydrogels with tailored architectures and controlled cellular responses. However, current 2PP strategies typically rely on (meth)acrylated proteins and inefficient chain-growth crosslinking mechanisms. Although thiol-ene photo-click reactions can enhance 2PP efficiency, commercial water-soluble thiol crosslinkers (e.g., DTT—dithiothreitol) tend to form intramolecular loops and introduce structural defects due […]
Engineering skeletal muscle tissue with precisely defined alignment is of significant importance for applications ranging from drug screening to biohybrid robotics. Aligning 2D contractile muscle monolayers, which are compatible with high-content imaging and can be deployed in planar soft robots, typically requires micropatterned cues. However, current protocols for integrating microscale topographical features in extracellular matrix […]
The high mortality associated with certain cancers can be attributed to the invasive nature of the tumor cells. Yet, the complexity of studying invasion hinders our understanding of how the tumor spreads. This work presents a microengineered three-dimensional (3D) in vitro model for studying cancer cell invasion and interaction with endothelial cells. The model was […]
Spatiotemporally controlled two-photon photodegradation of hydrogels has gained increasing attention for high-precision subtractive tissue engineering. However, conventional photolabile hydrogels often have poor efficiency upon two-photon excitation in the near-infrared (NIR) region and thus require high laser dosage that may compromise cell activity. As a result, high-speed two-photon hydrogel erosion in the presence of cells remains […]
Since the inception of 3D printing in the 1980s, there have been remarkable advancements that have given rise to a wide array of technologies. In the field of bioprinting, many of these technologies are being leveraged to embed living cells into precisely defined 3D structures. Droplet- and extrusion-based bioprinting, two of the earliest techniques, have […]
Engineering vasculature networks in physiologically relevant hydrogels represents a challenge in terms of both fabrication, due to the cell–bioink interactions, as well as the subsequent hydrogel-device interfacing. Here, a new cell-friendly fabrication strategy is presented to realize perfusable multi-hydrogel vasculature models supporting co-culture integrated in a microfluidic chip. The system comprises two different hydrogels to […]
Crosslinked poly(aspartic acid) (pAsp) hydrogels have been evaluated in various applications benefitting from their biocompatibility and biodegradability. Several crosslinking mechanisms for pAsp derivatives have been investigated, yet research focusing on functionalization of pAsp with photo-crosslinkable moieties is scarce. However, the latter would be beneficial for processing of pAsp through light-based additive manufacturing techniques. pAsp was […]
Multi-photon lithography (MPL) has proven to be a suitable tool to precisely control the microenvironment of cells in terms of the biochemical and biophysical properties of the hydrogel matrix. In this work, we present a novel method, based on multi-photon photografting of 4,4′-diazido-2,2′-stilbenedisulfonic acid (DSSA), and its capabilities to induce cell alignment, directional cell migration […]
