Tissue Engineering Improved by Use of Molecular Tethers

Scientists at the University of Washington  (UW) say they developed a novel method to keep proteins intact and functional by modifying them at a specific point so that they can be chemically tethered to an engineered scaffold using light. Since the tether can also be cut by laser light, this technique can create evolving patterns of signal proteins throughout a biomaterial scaffold to grow tissues made up of different types of cells, according to the team who published their study (“Bioactive site-specifically modified proteins for 4D patterning of gel biomaterials”) in Nature Materials.