Deterministic Integration of Biological and Soft Materials onto 3D Microscale Cellular Frameworks

Complex 3D organizations of materials represent ubiquitous structural motifs found in the most sophisticated forms of matter, the most notable of which are in life-sustaining hierarchical structures found in biology, but where simpler examples also exist as dense multilayered constructs in high-performance electronics. Each class of system evinces specific enabling forms of assembly to establish their functional organization at length scales not dissimilar to tissue-level constructs. This study describes materials and means of assembly that extend and join these disparate systems—schemes for the functional integration of soft and biological materials with synthetic 3D microscale, open frameworks that can leverage the most advanced forms of multilayer electronic technologies, including device-grade semiconductors such as monocrystalline silicon. Cellular migration behaviors, temporal dependencies of their growth, and contact guidance cues provided by the nonplanarity of these frameworks illustrate design criteria useful for their functional integration with living matter (e.g., NIH 3T3 fibroblast and primary rat dorsal root ganglion cell cultures).