Biofunctional lubricant-infused interfaces for controlled cell adhesion and patterning

Abstract

Biofunctional surfaces have been under extensive research due to the numerous applications they have in science and technology. In biofunctional surfaces, different biomolecules are immobilized on an interface in order to achieve a stable and selective biorecognition capability. A key characteristic of biofunctional interfaces that is sought after is prevention of non-specific adhesion, which will lead to an improved and selective interaction between the biological elements and the surface as well as reduction of noise in the system. In this work, we developed biofunctional surfaces which simultaneously have the capability to prevent non-specific binding. For the repellant characteristics, omniphobic liquid-infused coatings were implemented which were developed by producing self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of fluorosilanes. The biofunctional characteristics were integrated with the interface by two means: (i) producing mixed SAMs of aminosilanes and fluorosilanes to act as a bridge to chemically bind biological recognition elements while simultaneously add omniphobic characteristics, and furthermore, promote controlled biofunctionality (ii) microcontact printing patterns of proteins and further on producing SAMs of fluorosilanes on the surface, therefore resulting in an omniphobic micropatterned biofunctional surface. In order to investigate the biofunctionality, cells specific to the immobilized biomolecules were incubated on the biofunctional lubricant-infused interfaces. Here, we report that by varying the mixed SAMs ratio, we were able to control the degree of cell adherence to the interface. Furthermore, in the case of the micropatterned surfaces, we demonstrated localized cell attachment and enhanced cell specific adhesion.