We report the ability to modify microscopic 3D topographies within dissociated cultures, providing a means to alter the development of neurons as they extend neurites and establish interconnections. In this approach, multiphoton excitation is used to focally excite noncytotoxic photosensitizers that promote protein crosslinking, such as BSA, into matrices having feature sizes >250 nm. Barriers, growth lanes, and pinning structures comprised of crosslinked proteins are fabricated under conditions that do not compromise the viability of neurons both on short time scales and over periods of days. In addition, the ability to fabricate functional microstructures from crosslinked avidin enables submicrometer localization of controllable quantities of biotinylated ligands, such as indicators and biological effectors. Feasibility is demonstrated for using in situ microfabrication to guide the contact position of cortical neurons with micrometer accuracy, opening the possibility for engineering well defined sets of synaptic interactions.biofabrication ͉ multiphoton cell patterning ͉ growth cone S tudies of neuronal function increasingly rely on methods for precisely manipulating cellular properties. Innovations in electrophysiology, photolytic release of effectors, and inducible knockout technologies (1-3) have made it possible to explore cellular phenomena at levels of reduction few anticipated a quarter-century ago. Despite this technological revolution, approaches for influencing neuronal morphology, motility, and interconnectivity remain relatively primitive, a limitation of considerable importance to fundamental and applied neuroscience. An ability to prescribe the exact location at which an extending neurite makes contact with a target cell, or to constrain neuronal migration at a specific time point in development, would be of great value to studies of signal transduction and integration within individual cells and neural networks.Neurite orientation and growth can be modified in real time by various stimuli, including diffusible neurotrophin gradients (4), electric fields (5), and near-IR light (6), but these approaches exert relatively coarse influences over neurite pathfinding and have not been used to accurately guide cellular interactions. Finer delimitation of neurite development can be achieved by using patterned surfaces and topologies microfabricated in silicon and other materials (7-9); such structures, however, must be prepared before cells are introduced for culture when the detailed features of neurite arborization cannot be known.Multiphoton excitation provides an alternative approach for constructing 3D defined microscopic materials that, in principle, could be fabricated within cellular environments. Used extensively in 3D fluorescence imaging, multiphoton excitation also has proved useful for promoting photochemical reactions with high spatial and temporal control (10-13). Application of this strategy to ''direct-write'' material fabrication can be achieved by focusing light from a pulsed femtosec...