A masking member contains parallel through-holes, each of the through-holes contains a tilted wall structure; an upper end of the tilted wall structure of one of the through-holes abuts on an upper end of the tilted wall structure of an adjacent one of the through-holes thereby forming a knife-edge ridge at the upper ends. The masking member may in contact with a substrate. Formation in quantity of various different populations of a substance being studied with multiple combinations of distribution form and distribution density may be conducted by dripping a suspension of a single concentration of the substance onto the masking member.

Efficient stem cell delivery into biomaterials using capillary driven encapsulation are disclosed herein where stem/progenitor and/or tissue specific cells are rapidly and efficiently seeded via capillary driven encapsulation into a porous scaffold for cell delivery in the skin or any other organ. The rapid capillary force approach maximizes both seeding time and efficiency by combining hydrophobic, entropic and capillary forces to promote active, ‘bottom-up’ cell engraftment. This methodology uses micro domain patterned biopolymers in a porous dry gel to generate capillary pressure to move a viscous stem cell mix from a hydrophobic reservoir into the polymer matrix to promote active cell seeding within the entire gel volume.

A bacteriophage structure, a method of making the structure, and uses of the structure are described. The structure is a substrate with a surface having an ordered arrangement of parallel microridges thereon. Each microridge is composed of a plurality of nanoridges and has a longitudinal axis. Each nanoridge contains a bundle of phage nano fibers having longitudinal axes. The phage nanofibers in each nanoridge bundle are arranged in a substantially smectic alignment. The longitudinal axis of each microridge is perpendicular to the longitudinal axes of the phage nanofibers which make up the nanoridges of the microridge. The structure may be used as a growth surface for inducing differentiation of stem cells such as neural progenitor cells.

An elastomeric substrate comprises a surface with regions of heterogeneous rigidity, wherein the regions are formed by exposing the elastomeric substrate to an energy source to form the regions such that the regions include a rigidity pattern comprising spots.

The present invention is drawn to the generation of micropatterns of biomolecules and cells on standard laboratory materials through selective ablation of a physisorbed biomolecule with oxygen plasma. In certain embodiments, oxygen plasma is able to ablate selectively physisorbed layers of biomolecules (e.g., type-I collagen, fibronectin, laminin, and Matrigel) along complex non-linear paths which are difficult or impossible to pattern using alternative methods. In addition, certain embodiments of the present invention relate to the micropatterning of multiple cell types on curved surfaces, multiwell plates, and flat bottom flasks. The invention also features kits for use with the subject methods.

The method for producing a cell construct including small intestinal epithelial cells includes: seeding stem cells onto cell culture substrate, the cell culture substrate having surface including cell culture part, wherein the cell culture part includes non-cell-adhesive part, and cell-adhesive part extending continuously or intermittently along periphery of the non-cell-adhesive part and surrounding the non-cell-adhesive part; and culturing the stem cells seeded to differentiate a part of the stem cells into small intestinal epithelial cells.

Provided is a device for cell culture, the device including: a base material including a culture section used for culturing hematopoietic stem cells or hematopoietic progenitor cells, or both the hematopoietic stem cells and the hematopoietic progenitor cells, wherein the culture section includes a plurality of pores, and wherein a Young's modulus of the culture section measured according to JIS K 7161-1 and JIS K 7161-2 is at least 3 GPa.

The presently disclosed subject matter relates generally to the delivery of electrical stimuli via cell-penetrating nanoelectrodes. Such electrical stimuli leads to differentiation of cells, including but not limited to adipose derived stem cells, to neural lineage, specifically to neural cells.

Engineered, living, three-dimensional liver tissue constructs comprising: one or more layers, wherein each layer contains one or more liver cell types, the one or more layers cohered to form a living, three-dimensional liver tissue construct. In some embodiments, the constructs are characterized by having at least one of: at least one layer comprising a plurality of cell types, the cell types spatially arranged relative to each other to create a planar geometry; and a plurality of layers, at least one layer compositionally or architecturally distinct from at least one other layer to create a laminar geometry. Also disclosed are arrays and methods of making the same. Also disclosed are engineered, living, three-dimensional liver tissue constructs for use in the augmentation or restoration of one or more liver functions, by in vivo delivery of tissue or utilization of tissue in an extracorporeal device.

A cell-based device and method are disclosed for in vitro testing of compositions or compounds for irritation potential. Both the device and method comprise a) a confluent layer of corneal epithelial cells supported on a chemically patterned hydrogel, where the cells are aligned with the chemical pattern, b) a collector to receive effluent fluid, and optionally c) a detector. The device and method can also comprise an extracellular matrix (ECM) assembled by corneal keratocytes supported on the chemically patterned hydrogel. The cell-based device and method provide simple replacements for the in vivo Draize rabbit eye irritation test.