Responsive, biocompatible substrates are of interest for directing the maturation and function of cells in vitro during cell culture. This can potentially provide cells and tissues with desirable properties for regenerative therapies. The present disclosure provides a scalable approach to attach, align and dynamically load cells on responsive liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) substrates. Monodomain LCEs exhibit reversible shape changes in response to cyclic stimulus, and when immersed in an aqueous medium on top of, for example, resistive heaters, shape changes are fast, reversible and produce minimal temperature changes in the surroundings.

A transparent microbial energy device includes a first transparent electrode, a first hydrogel layer disposed on the first transparent electrode, an ion conductive polymer electrolyte membrane disposed on the first hydrogel layer, a second hydrogel layer disclosed on the ion conductive polymer electrolyte membrane, and a second transparent electrode disposed on the second hydrogel layer. The first hydrogel layer includes algal cells, and the second hydrogel layer includes potassium ferricyanide.

A method of manufacturing a patterned substrate for culturing cells. The method includes the steps of: (1) preparing a substrate, (2) forming a first plasma polymer layer by integrating a first precursor material on the substrate using a plasma, wherein the first plasma layer inhibits cell adsorption, and wherein the first precursor material is a siloxane-based compound having a siloxane functional group with the SiOSi linkage, (3) placing a shadow mask having a predetermined pattern on the first plasma polymer layer thus formed, and (4) forming a second patterned plasma polymer layer by integrating a second precursor material using a plasma, wherein the second patterned plasma layer permits culturing of cells, whereby the patterned substrate is obtained.

Described herein are 3-dimensional clusters of reaggregated cells comprising cells reaggregated from at least two different cell sources, such as different cell types, different donors, and combinations thereof. Methods of making, using, and cryopreserving these 3-dimensional clusters of reaggregated cells are also described herein.

Substrates modified with plasma-activated coatings are provided, as are processes for their preparation. The coated substrates may possess high transparency and are radical rich, enabling covalent attachment of biomolecules, for example proteins.

Hollow glass microspheres (HGMS) with a controlled nanotopographical surface structure (.sup.NSHGMS) demonstrate improved isolation and recovery of cell from biological fluid. .sup.NSHGMS can be achieved by applying layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of negatively charged SiO2 nanoparticles and positively charged poly-L-arginine molecules. Then, a sheathing can be applied to the surface with an enzymatically degradable LbL film made from biotinylated alginate and poly-L-arginine. Further, a cap of anti-EpCAM antibodies and anti-fouling PEG molecules can be applied to the sheathed film covering the microspheres. Compared to smooth-surfaced HGMS, NSHGMS reveals shorter isolation times, enhanced capture efficiency and lower detection limit in, for example, commonly used cancer cell lines. An .sup.NSHGMS-based cell isolation method does not require specialized lab equipment or an external power source, and thus, can be used for separation of targeted cells from blood or other body fluid in a resource-limited environment.

A method for forming microcarriers includes forming liquid drops from a sol-gel solution; depositing the drops in the form of a liquid on a first, preferably hydrophobic support; deforming the drops deposited on the first support; solidifying the drops by gelling and drying, so as to form solid microcarriers; and extracting the solidified microcarriers from the first support.