Speaker
Description
Micropatterning has been shown a powerful technique to decouple the effects between the specific cell shape, area, aspect ratio, and adhesion distributions on 2D. However, to pattern cells in 3D is still quite limited, especially, at the subcellular scale. Here, we use direct writing method by the commercial PRIMO system to micropattern extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, such as fibronectin, providing specific adhesion sites on spherical microwells. The direct writing offers advantages without mask producing and aligning procedure. We first test the instrument on a coverglass, which can reach 5μm resolution with 20x air objective and test on the polyacrylamide hydrogel. Our final goal is to write the patterns on the microwell made of polyacrylamide gel. This technique will enable to have well-defined cell shapes in 3D, where we can further differentiate how the shape affects the differentiation fate of mesenchymal stem cells.
