Hydrogel Engineering With Widefield Patterned Illumination

Hydrogels are the material of choice to emulate the cellular micro-environment thanks to their high hydric content and tunable visco-elastic properties. In field such as cancer research, toxicology or tissue engineering, enabling technologies to control the structural and biochemical properties of hydrogels are much sought after. Indeed, structuring and functionnalizing hydrogels could unlock the design of more advanced organotypic models but existing solutions usually lack the simplicity and flexibility to adapt to the day to day flow of modern research. Here by harnessing generic chemistry with digitally processed UV widefield illumination we achieve additive or subtractive manufacturing and decoration for common hydrogels such has PEG, Matrigel, Agar or Poly-acrylamide. We grew neurons and cell lines onto chemically and topographically complex PEG gels, inside engineered Matrigel structures or within microfluidic chambers demonstrating that simple principles may unlock engineering for hydrogels that lack dedicated chemistry.