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Soft lithography refers to printing and moulding techniques to produce microstructures or nanostructures from elastomeric polymer such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The techniques are flexible and inexpensive.
The ability to measure strain in cells and tissues in vitro with minimal perturbation and at high spatial resolution has proven challenging. Here the authors develop a fluorescently-labelled fibronectin square lattice mesh that can be applied to the surface of cells and tissues to enable direct quantification and mapping of strain over time.
A commercially viable method for synthesizing magnetic nanoparticles could be developed by transferring clusters of genes from magnetic bacteria to foreign, more stable bacteria.
