Chemistries for Making Additive Nanolithography in OrmoComp® Permissive for Cell Adhesion and Growth.

Two-photon lithography allows writing of arbitrary nanoarchitectures in photopolymers. This design flexibility opens almost limitless possibilities for biological studies, but the acrylate-based polymers frequently used do not allow for adhesion and growth of some types of cells. Indeed, we found that lithographically defined structures made from OrmoComp® do not support E18 murine cortical neurons. We reacted OrmoComp® structures with several diamines thereby rendering the surfaces directly permissive for neuron attachment and growth by presenting a surface coating similar to the traditional cell biology coating achieved with poly-D-lysine (PDL) and laminin. However, in contrast to PDL-laminin coatings that cover the entire surface, the amine-terminated OrmoComp® structures are orthogonally modified in deference to the surrounding glass or plastic substrate, adding yet another design element for advanced biological studies.