Tunable Hydrogels for External Manipulation of Cellular Microenvironments through Controlled Photodegradation

A photocleavable poly(ethylene-glycol)-based hydrogel is presented in which predictable, user-defined gradients in the network's structure can be fabricated in real time under cytocompatible conditions. This platform provides new opportunities to investigate how material structure influences cell function. Here, cell morphology is directed spatially by degradation-induced gradients in the local polymer density (see figure, scale bars: 50 mu m).