Microdevices: Flexible Fabrication of Shape‐Controlled Collagen Building Blocks for Self‐Assembly of 3D Microtissues (Small 30/2015)

A straightforward strategy is described on page 3666 for generating shape-controlled collagen building blocks with well-defined architectures. The collagen blocks with tunable geometries are simply produced and released by J. Qin and co-workers via a membrane-templated microdevice in a controllable manner. The cell-laden collagen blocks can spontaneously self-assemble into organized microtissue constructs with pre-determined configurations, driven by the synergistic effects of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. This strategy would open up new avenues for the study of tissue/organ morphogenesis, and tissue engineering applications.