Improved Microcontact Printing of Proteins using Hydrophilic Thermoplastic Elastomers as Stamp Materials

Recently, the microstructuring of biological species, such as proteins, using microcontact printing (μCP), has become very popular. Microstructuring of proteins is useful for a variety of applications, such as biosensors, controlled cell growth and adhesion and microarrays for bioanalytical detection. Here the authors investigated the microcontact printing of proteins using a hydrophilic thermoplastic elastomeric stamp material. The emphasis is placed on the quality of the printed patterns with respect to inking time and protein concentration in the ink.