Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

Juan J Depablo

Sean Paul Palecek

Jeffrey C Mohr

Nicholas Lawrence Abbott

Christopher John Murphy

Paul Franklin Nealey

Nathan Lockwood

Harun Solak

Francesco Cerrina

Elise Huang

XiaoMin Yang

Richard D Peters

Qiang Wang

Timothy Joseph Kamp

Jianhua Zhang

A three-dimensional microwell system that supports long term pluripotent cell culture and formation of homogeneous embryoid bodies (EBs) is described. Microwell-cultured pluripotent cells remain viable and undifferentiated for several weeks in culture and maintain undifferentiated replication when passaged to Matrigel&#xae;-coated, tissue culture-treated polystyrene dishes. Microwell-cultured pluripotent cells maintain pluripotency, differentiating to each of the three embryonic germ layers. Pluripotent cell aggregates released from microwells can be passaged for undifferentiated replication or differentiated to monodisperse EBs. The ability to constrain pluripotent cell growth in three dimensions advantageously provides for more efficient, reproducible culture of undifferentiated cells, high-throughput screening, and the ability to direct pluripotent cell differentiation by generating monodisperse EBs of a desired size and shape. Cardiomyocyte-rich EBs are obtained from pluripotent cells cultured in microwells of defined size and shape.

Method for culturing stem cells

The present invention is directed to liquid crystalline substrates useful in the culture of cells and methods of their use. In certain embodiments, the invention provides methods and devices for imaging changes (e.g., reorganization) of extracellular matrix components by living cells.

Liquid crystalline substrates for culturing cells

Copolymer structures are formed by exposing a substrate with an imaging layer thereon to two or more beams of selected wavelengths to form interference patterns at the imaging layer to change the wettability of the imaging layer in accordance with the interference patterns. A layer of a selected block copolymer is deposited onto the exposed imaging layer and annealed to separate the components of the copolymer in accordance with the pattern of wettability and to replicate the pattern of the imaging layer in the copolymer layer. Stripes or isolated regions of the separated components may be formed with periodic dimensions in the range of 100 nm or less.

Guided self-assembly of block copolymer films on interferometrically nanopatterned substrates

Growing community of inventors

Madison, WI, United States of America

Juan J Depablo