| AVS 56th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Inkjet Technology: Printing, Materials Processing, and Microfluidics Fundamentals Topical Conference | Thursday Sessions |
| Session IJ+BI+MN+SE+AS-ThM |
| Session: | Inkjet Technology: Novel and Emerging Applications |
| Presenter: | A.L. Hook, University of Nottingham, UK |
| Authors: | A.L. Hook, University of Nottingham, UK J. Yang, University of Nottingham, UK D.G. Anderson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology R.S. Langer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology M.C. Davies, University of Nottingham, UK M.R. Alexander, University of Nottingham, UK |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Polymer microarrays are emerging as a key enabling technology for the discovery of new biomaterials. This platform can readily be screened for properties of interest and for correlating surface chemistry with biological phenomenon. A method for forming polymer microarrays has been developed whereupon a contact printer is used to deposit nanolitre volumes of premixed acrylate monomer and initiator to defined locations of a glass slide with subsequent UV irradiation1. This results in polymerisation occurring on the slide, offering a useful high throughput materials discovery platform. The identification of relationships between cell response to these materials and surface properties is facilitated by high throughput analysis of this slide format2,3. Here, we have formed these polymer microarrays for the first time using ink-jet printing, to offer flexibility of slide production. Characterisation was achieved using a high throughput surface analysis approach, including the techniques of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy and sessile drop water contact angle measurements2. Of particular interest were polymers containing ethylene glycol functionality that were investigated for their switchable properties under biologically relevant conditions.
1 D. G. Anderson, S. Levenberg, R. Langer, Nat.Biotechnol. 2004, 22(7), 863.
2 A. J. Urquhart, D. G. Anderson, M. Taylor, M. R. Alexander, R. Langer, M. C. Davies, Adv.Mater. 2007, 19(18), 2486.
3 Y. Mei, S. Gerecht, M. Taylor, A. J. Urquhart, S. R. Bogatyrev, S. W. Cho, M. C. Davies, M. R. Alexander, R. S. Langer, D. G. Anderson, Adv. Mater. 2009, 21(early view), doi:10.1002/adma.200803184.