Hydrogel Synthesis and Assembly
Hydrogel Synthesis and Assembly
Florence Muller, David Mankus, Margaret Bisher, Abigail Lytton-Jean, Owen Fenton
Koch Institute at MIT, MIT Department of Chemical Engineering
This image is a microscopic magnification of a ß-Aminoacrylate hydrogel network consisting of four-arm PEG-Alkynoate monomers and amine cross linkers. This material can serve as a scaffold for cells and therapeutics for tissue engineering applications. Eventually, this material will be 3D bioprinted, embedding cells and therapeutics. The SEM imaging targets to investigate the mesh size and macroscopic structure of the network in order to get a better understanding as to how cells behave in this environment. Knowing the macroscopic structure will enable us to impart hierarchical structures in this tissue in order to best mimic native tissues.