Nanoscale and microscale approaches for engineering the in vitro cellular microenvironment

Micro- and nanofabrication approaches have dramatically changed our society through their use in microelectronics and telecommunication industries. These engineering tools are also useful for many biological applications ranging from drug delivery to DNA sequencing, since they can be used to fabricate small features at a low cost and in a reproducible manner. The goal of this thesis was to develop techniques based on the merger of novel materials and nano and microfabrication approaches to manipulate cell microenvironment in culture. To control cell migration and to restrict cell or colony size, cells and proteins were patterned by using molding or printing methods. Poly(ethylene glycol)-based molecules and polysaccharides were used to control cell-substrate interactions and to prevent cell adhesion on specific regions of a substrate. To control cell-cell contact, layer-by-layer deposition of ionic biopolymers (i.e. negatively charged hyaluronic acid and positively charged poly-L-lysine) was used to generate patterned co-cultures. In addition, to control cell-soluble factor interactions, microfluidic-based approaches were developed. To pattern cells and proteins within microchannels, a soft lithographic method was developed to pattern microchannel substrates using printing and molding approaches.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Biological Engineering Division.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Khademhosseini, Ali

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Robert S. Langer.

• Biological Engineering Division.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33867

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33867