Ultra Small Fibers, LLC

Jose Lino Vasconcelos Da Costa

William Hudson Hofmeister

Alexander Yuryevich Terekhov

Lloyd M Davis

Kathleen Stacia Lansford

Deepak Rajput

Lucas Hofmeister

Solution casting a nanostructure. Preparing a template by ablating nanoholes in a substrate using single-femtosecond laser machining. Replicating the nanoholes by applying a solution of a polymer and a solvent into the template. After the solvent has substantially dissipated, removing the replica from the substrate.

Nanostructures from laser-ablated nanohole templates

Embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter provide biomimetic cell culture substrates comprising highly tunable patterned polymer nanofiber matrices capable of modulating expression of critical self-renewal factors and markers of cell-cell interaction to maintain stemness of human mesenchymal stem cells in vitro. Embodiments of the presently-disclosed subject matter also provide scalable, highly repeatable methods of making biomimetic cell culture substrates by hot pressing thermoplastic polymer films into femtosecond laser-ablated nanopore molds to form patterned polymer nanofiber matrices on flat thermoplastic substrates.

Biomimetic cell culture substrates

A semipermeable ultrathin polymer membrane comprises a substantially optically transparent polymer film having a surface area to thickness ratio of at least 1,000,000:1, and an array of precisely spatially ordered pores of a user-selected diameter defined therethrough. Such membranes can be fabricated by providing a mold having a patterned array of nanoholes femtosecond laser ablated in a surface thereof; applying a first polymer solution onto the mold surface so that the first polymer solution infiltrates the nanoholes; allowing the first polymer solution to dry and form a replica of the mold having a plurality of freestanding nanoneedles extending from a surface of the replica; removing the replica from the mold; coating the replica surface with a second polymer solution; drying the second polymer solution to form a porous polymer film; and dissolving the replica in a solvent to release the film from the replica as a semipermeable ultrathin polymer membrane.

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Murfreesboro, TN, United States of America

Jose Lino Vasconcelos Da Costa