Shape-Changing Culture Dishes and Tissue Engineering Scaffolds: Why it's
About Time
Dr. James Henderson, Assistant Professor, L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science;
and Director, Bioengineering Graduate Program, Syracuse University
ABSTRACT
In vitro studies have begun to elucidate the principles through which extracellular matrix (ECM) behavior
supports and regulates tissue development, disease, and healing. Engineered 2D and 3D substrates and
scaffolds have provided increasingly powerful tools with which to investigate the relationships between
cell mechanical behavior and ECM composition and organization. But substrates and scaffolds are often
static structures, unchanging over time, providing poor mimics of the dynamic in vivo environment. As
engineered in vitro environments become more accurate biochemical and biophysical tools for
investigating and modeling in vivo environments, the critical next step for many areas of cell
biomechanics and mechanobiology will be incorporation of increased programmable physical functionality
into the environments. To this end, we have been investigating the use of shape memory polymers for the
study and application of mechanobiology. Here we will present ongoing work on programmable cell
culture substrates and scaffolds. The results demonstrate control of cell behavior through shape-memoryactivated biophysical changes and introduce the use of such substrates and scaffolds for investigation of
mechanotransduction, cell biomechanical function, and cell soft-matter physics. Furthermore, we will
discuss the potential for these new approaches to be extended to tissue engineering and regenerative
medicine.