Diversity of viscoelastic properties of an engineered muscle-inspired protein hydrogel

Abstract

Folded protein hydrogels are prime candidates as tuneable biomaterials but it is unclear to what extent their mechanical properties have mesoscopic, as opposed to molecular origins. To address this, we...

A New Approach for On-Chip Production of Biological Microgels Using Photochemical Cross-Linking

“…The [Ru­(bpy) 3 ] 2+ cross-linking strategy is itself attractive as it has been shown to reach higher penetration depths beneath the surface of the material and is nontoxic, making it attractive for achieving complete and rapid cross-linking . It is one of the most commonly used strategies for protein hydrogel formation ,− and is increasingly being investigated for biomedical applications, including cell culture and tissue sealants …”

“…In particular, it has a comparatively high absorptivity (ε ≈ 14 600 M –1 cm –1 at 450 nm), allowing lower reagent concentrations with less adverse effects on viability in cell culture applications . Finally, our approach could be adapted to proteins whose mechanics respond to chemical or mechanical stimuli …”

“… 13 Finally, our approach could be adapted to proteins whose mechanics respond to chemical 33 or mechanical stimuli. 21 …”