Femtosecond laser direct write (fs-LDW) is a promising technology for three-dimensional (3D) printing due to its high resolution, flexibility, and versatility. A protein solution can be used as a precursor to fabricate 3D proteinaceous microstructures that retain the protein's native function. The large diversity of protein molecules with different native functions allows diverse applications of this technology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Biomater Sci Eng
February 2020
Laser direct write (LDW) is a promising three-dimensional (3D) printing technology for creating proteinaceous microstructures in which the proteins retain their original function, enabling the manufacture of complex biomimetic 3D microenvironments and versatile enhancement of medical microdevices. A photoactivator has commonly been used to date in the laser direct write of proteins to enhance the cross-linking process. However, incomplete conversion results in photoactivator molecules remaining trapped inside the protein microstructure, causing their gradual leaching and subsequent undesirable effect on biological applications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSurface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a multidisciplinary trace analysis technique based on plasmonic effects. The development of SERS microfluidic chips has been exploited extensively in recent times impacting on applications in diverse fields. However, despite much progress, the excitation of label-free molecules is extremely challenging when analyte concentrations are lower than 1 nM because of the blinking SERS effect.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Biomater Sci Eng
March 2017
In this paper, we present a multicomponent microenvironment consisting of proteinaceous networks with submicron-sized features optionally embedded into a photoresist microscaffold. By two-photon direct laser writing, free-standing 3D proteinaceous microstructures were fabricated for cell culture application, demonstrated with NIH/3T3 fibroblast cells. A Young's modulus of megapascal-order contributes to the challenge of structural sustainability of the proteinaceous microstructures for experiments as well as sequential fabrication steps.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMost organs contain interconnected tubular tissues that are one-cell-thick, polarized epithelial monolayers enclosing a fluid-filled lumen. Such tissue organization plays crucial roles in developmental and normal physiology, and the proper functioning of these tissues depends on their regulation by complex biochemical perturbations and equally important, but poorly understood, mechanical perturbations. In this study, by combining micropatterning techniques and atomic force microscopy, we developed a simple in vitro experimental platform for characterizing the mechanical properties of the MDCK II cyst, the simplest model of lumen-enclosing epithelial monolayers.
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