Engineered Nanomembranes for Directing Cellular OrganizationToward Flexible Biodevices.

Controlling the cellular microenvironmentcan be used to directthe cellular organization, thereby improving the function of synthetictissues in biosensing, biorobotics, and regenerative medicine. Inthis study, we were inspired by the microstructure and biologicalproperties of the extracellular matrix to develop freestanding ultrathinpolymeric films (referred as “nanomembranes”) that wereflexible, cell adhesive, and had a morphologically tailorable surface.The resulting nanomembranes were exploited as flexible substrateson which cell-adhesive micropatterns were generated to align C2C12skeletal myoblasts and embedded fibril carbon nanotubes enhanced thecellular elongation and differentiation. Functional nanomembraneswith tunable morphology and mechanical properties hold great promisein studying cell–substrate interactions and in fabricatingbiomimetic constructs toward flexible biodevices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]