Our new paper “Optomechanically Actuated Hydrogel Platform for Cell Stimulation with Spatial and Temporal Resolution” has been accepted by ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering. This work was led by Prof. Khalid Salaita @Gatech & Emory University — Department of Biomedical Engineering, and in collaboration with Prof. Christian Franck @University of Wisconsin-Madison. Congratulations, everyone!
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Cells exist in the body in mechanically dynamic environments, yet the vast majority of in vitro cell culture is conducted on static materials such as plastic dishes and gels. To address this limitation, we report an approach to transition widely used hydrogels into mechanically active substrates by doping optomechanical actuator (OMA) nanoparticles within the polymer matrix. OMAs are composed of gold nanorods surrounded by a thermoresponsive polymer shell that rapidly collapses upon near-infrared (NIR) illumination. This work establishes OMA-actuated biomaterials as a powerful tool for in vitro mechanical manipulation with broad applications in the field of mechanobiology.
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The preprint is available here: Link, ResearchGate link.
