Glowing spirals: Chemical scaffolds guide living cells into precisely defined three-dimensional patterns
Monday, March 7, 2011 - 18:00
in Biology & Nature
(PhysOrg.com) -- To find our way, we use maps. Cells use "chemical maps" to find the way: they orient themselves by following concentration gradients of attractants or repellants. David H. Gracias and a team at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA) have now developed a clever new method to produce three-dimensional patterns of chemical concentration gradients in vitro -- with previously unattainable versatility and precision in both space and time.