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Left-right asymmetry is a conserved property in nature and observed in the human body, a property known as cell chirality. Cell chirality is often studied using micropatterned in vitro models. However, micropattern geometry and size often varies across different studies, making it challenging to compare results. Here, we utilized micropatterned RGD-peptide lines on hyaluronic acid hydrogels to investigate the effect of the micropattern width on the exhibited cell chirality bias of brain microvascular endothelial cells. Overall, this cell type exhibited a negative chirality bias on micropatterned lines ranging from 10 mu m to 400 mu m in width, where the negative bias was most pronounced on the 100 mu m wide lines. We also observed that this exhibited chirality bias varied across the line width. This work serves as a guide to determine optimal micropattern width for further investigations on cell chirality bias and its prominence in e.g., disease states or upon exposure to toxic substances.

Currently, there is limited insight on the role that scientific diasporas can play in STEAM education in Latin America. Here, we present the Science Clubs Colombia (Clubes de Ciencia Colombia-SCC) program, a pioneering STEAM capacity-building initiative led by volunteer scientists to engage youth and children from underserved communities in science. The program brings together researchers based in Colombia and abroad to lead intensive project-based learning workshops for young students in urban and rural areas. These projects focus on channeling the students' technical and cognitive scientific aptitudes to tackle challenges of both local and global relevance. The program provides high-quality STEAM education adapted to communities' needs and articulates long-lasting international collaborations using the mobility of the Colombian diaspora. The program's success is tangible via its sustained growth and adaptability. Since its first version in 2015, 722 volunteer scientists living abroad or in Colombia have collaborated to create 364 clubs with the participation of 9,295 students. We describe elements of the SCC program that lead to a scalable and reproducible outcome to engage science diasporas in STEAM education. Additionally, we discuss the involvement of multiple stakeholders and the generation of international networks as potential science diplomacy outcomes. The SCC program strengthens the involvement of Latin American youth in science, demonstrates the potential of engaging scientific diasporas in science education, and enriches connections between the Global South and the Global North.

This work reports on an effort to decipher the alignment of brain microvasculature endothelial cells to physical constrains generated via adhesion control on hydrogel surfaces and explore the corresponding responses upon glucose level variations emulating the hypo- and hyperglycaemic effects in diabetes. We prepared hydrogels of hyaluronic acid a natural biomaterial that does not naturally support endothelial cell adhesion, and specifically functionalised RGD peptides into lines using UV-mediated linkage. The width of the lines was varied from 10 to 100 µm. We evaluated cell alignment by measuring the nuclei, cell, and F-actin orientations, and the nuclei and cell eccentricity via immunofluorescent staining and image analysis. We found that the brain microvascular endothelial cells aligned and elongated to these physical constraints for all line widths. In addition, we also observed that varying the cell medium glucose levels affected the cell alignment along the patterns. We believe our results may provide a platform for further studies on the impact of altered glucose levels in cardiovascular disease.

This review article describes microfabrication techniques to define chemical, mechanical and structural patterns in hydrogels and how these can be used to prepare in vivo like, i.e. biomimetic, cell culture scaffolds. Hydrogels are attractive materials for 3D cell cultures as they provide ideal culture conditions and they are becoming more prominently used. Single material gels without any modifications do however have their limitation in use and much can be gained by in improving the in vivo resemblance of simple hydrogel cell culture scaffolds. This review article discusses the most commonly used cross-linking strategies used for hydrogel-based culture scaffolds and gives a brief introduction to microfabrication methods that can be used to define chemical, mechanical and structural patterns in hydrogels with micrometre resolution. The review article also describes a selection of literature references using these microfabrication techniques to prepare organ and disease models with controlled cell adhesion, proliferation and migration. It is intended to serve as an introduction to microfabrication of hydrogels and an inspiration for novel interdisciplinary research projects.

The blood brain barrier is constituted by endothelial cells, astrocytes and pericytes; and are organized into well structured units [1]. Standard cell culture techniques cannot recapitulate this organized structure. Hydrogels are an attractive scaffold due to their mechanical and chemical properties similar to those in body tissue[2] We propose the use of a photo-crosslinkable hyaluronic acid hydrogel as cell culture scaffold. Furthermore, chemical cues can be added into the hydrogel matrix to promote and control cell adhesion using UV lithography.