Two to tango: Micropatterned substrates to control cell-cell interactions

C. M. Nelson, E. Lim, C. S. Chen

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Specifying the location of cells with respect to each other is important for cell-based biosensors, tissue engineering, and fundamental questions in cell biology. Cell-substrate interactions can be spatially controlled using a variety of microfabrication- and soft lithography-based approaches; however, because these techniques rely on two-dimensional chemical patterning, they cannot be used to control cell-cell interactions at either the single cell- or tissue-level. By patterning non-adhesive and adhesive gels, we have engineered three-dimensional substrates that can control: 1) the exact location of cell-cell contacts in single cells with micrometer precision, and 2) the final architecture of multi-cellular aggregates. We will demonstrate how these substrates can be used to separate effects due to endothelial cell-cell contact from those due to diffusible, paracrine signaling. In addition, we will show how these techniques can be applied to create tissue constructs and stable, cell-based biosensor platforms.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1700-1701
Number of pages2
JournalAnnual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology - Proceedings
Volume2
StatePublished - 2002
Externally publishedYes
EventProceedings of the 2002 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology 24th Annual Conference and the 2002 Fall Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES / EMBS) - Houston, TX, United States
Duration: Oct 23 2002Oct 26 2002

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Signal Processing
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Health Informatics

Keywords

  • Biosensors
  • Cell and tissue engineering
  • Microfabrication

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