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A. Ovsianikov:
"Engineered cellular microenvironments by two-photon polymerization technique";
Talk: 4. Wiener Biomaterialsymposium, Wien; 2010-11-15 - 2010-11-17; in: "Tagungsband", J. Stampfl (ed.); (2010), 5.

Natural cell environment is characterized by a combination of complex 3D micro- and nanostructures with a variety of topological and biochemical cues. Systematic in vitro studies of cell interactions and tissue growth in 3D rely on the availability of scaffolds, supporting the cell growth, in a reproducible manner.

Two-photon polymerization (2PP) is a rapid and straightforward direct laser writing technique, capable of producing complex 3D structures in a single step. The resolution of this technique can be set from just below than 100nm up to hundreds of micrometers, almost completely covering the feature sizes observed in the natural ECM. Most importantly, in contrast to conventional approaches, series of exactly identical structures can be produced by 2PP.

In this contribution, our recent advances in 2PP fabrication of 3D scaffolds from novel biological materials are presented. Synthetic, as well as naturally derived polymers, modified with acrylate or methacrylate functional groups, were processed by 2PP technique. Applied materials were evaluated with respect to biocompatibility and support of cell proliferation. Presented results demonstrate the great potential of 2PP technique for the fabrication of 3D scaffolds, which resemble both architecture and biochemistry of natural cell environment.