By Dr. Jim Johnson, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, BioForce Nanosciences, Inc.
Cell biology studies involving the manipulation, perturbation or detection of material in and near small clusters or even single eukaryotic cells have importance in cell science. The means to place, affix and manipulate cells became available with advances in MEMs technology and microcontact printing, surface chemistries and developments in the biology of extracellular matrix proteins and cell ligands.
New techniques enabling the deposition of femtoliter to attoliter amounts of proteins in solutions have created the ability to produce single and multicomponent protein patterns in virtually an infinite variety thus facilitating study of many cell biology problems. Some of the more salient problems and solutions to the application of ECM proteins to substrata, immobilization protocols with emphasis on the retention of protein functionality, the microenvironment needed for attachment of cells, and the responses of cells to attachment on surfaces will be discussed in this webinar.
Introduction:
-Single cells in isolation-differentiation morphogenesis
-Single cell biosensors
-Cell interactions – distance, signal transduction, communication
-Agent transposition through cells
-Agent transfer between cells
-Interaction and interference with substrates
-Mixed cell populations- XY formats
-Multidimensional tissue constructs
Salient Factors and Deliberations:
-Control of spot size, pitch, repetitions (array of arrays), Change on the fly
-Amount of substance in spot, substance density/area
-Flexibility of pattern design and spacing
-Multicomponent patterns, (interlacing dot maps, line maps)
-Single spot – Multicomponent gradient patterns
-Others
