No abstract

Skin-mountable microelectronics are garnering substantial interest for various promising applications including human-machine interfaces, biointegrated devices, and personalized medicine. However, it remains a critical challenge to develop e-skins to mimic the human somatosensory system in full working range. Here, we present a multifunctional e-skin system with a heterostructured configuration that couples vinyl-hybrid-silica nanoparticle (VSNP)–modified polyacrylamide (PAM) hydrogel with two-dimensional (2D) MXene through nano-bridging layers of polypyrrole nanowires (PpyNWs) at the interfaces, featuring high toughness and low hysteresis, in tandem with controlled crack generation and distribution. The multidimensional configurations endow the e-skin with an extraordinary working range (2800%), ultrafast responsiveness (90 ms) and resilience (240 ms), good linearity (800%), tunable sensing mechanisms, and excellent reproducibility. In parallel, this e-skin platform is capable of detecting, quantifying, and remotely monitoring stretching motions in multiple dimensions, tactile pressure, proximity sensing, and variations in temperature and light, establishing a promising platform for next-generation smart flexible electronics.

With their unique ability to differentiate into all cell types, embryonic stem (ES) cells hold great therapeutic promise. To improve the efficiency of embryoid body (EB)-mediated ES cell differentiation, we studied murine EBs on the basis of their size and found that EBs with an intermediate size (diameter 100 -300 m) are the most proliferative, hold the greatest differentiation potential, and have the lowest rate of cell death. In an attempt to promote the formation of this subpopulation, we surveyed several biocompatible substrates with different surface chemical parameters and identified a strong correlation between hydrophobicity and EB development. Using self-assembled monolayers of various lengths of alkanethiolates on gold substrates, we directly tested this correlation and found that surfaces that exhibit increasing hydrophobicity enrich for the intermediate-size EBs. When this approach was applied to the human ES cell system, similar phenomena were observed. Our data demonstrate that hydrophobic surfaces serve as a platform to deliver uniform EB populations and may significantly improve the efficiency of ES cell differentiation.hydrophobicity ͉ self-assembled monolayers ͉ serum-free differentiation T he potential of embryonic stem (ES) cells to differentiate into all specialized cell types has made them attractive models for studying the mechanisms of lineage commitment and has opened pathways for regenerative medicine (1). Various in vitro strategies have been developed for differentiation of ES cells into populations of specific cell types (2). Of these strategies, the formation of three-dimensional cell aggregates known as embryoid bodies (EBs) is a common and critical intermediate to the induction of lineage-specific differentiation (3, 4). In addition, lineage differentiation programs within the EB closely resemble lineage commitment in vivo in the developing embryo, further highlighting the importance of the ES cell-EB culture system (5-8).Although EBs can be generated through several methodologies, the suspension culture technique allows for easy access to the cultured EBs and can be scaled for expansion (9). In this method, EBs are formed when ES cells are removed from feeder contact and dispersed on low-attachment tissue culture plates, supplemented by culture medium absent of key factors necessary for the maintenance of undifferentiated ES cell growth. Lowattachment tissue culture plates typically use neutral, hydrophilic hydrogels to prevent protein adsorption and subsequent cell attachment, facilitating the initial aggregation of ES cells that is critical to EB formation (10). The cellular aggregates formed by this procedure will develop simple EBs that consist of an outer layer of endoderm cells within 2-4 days (3). At this point, two differentiation strategies can be applied. If suspension culture is continued, simple EBs will differentiate further to form cystic EBs that typically contain an inner layer of columnar ectodermlike cells and that accumulate fluid in the interior of the struct...