LAUSR

Current strategies to construct cell-based bioartificial tissues largely remain on multi-cell level. Taking the cell diversity into account, single cell manipulation would be of urgent need for a delicate bioartificial tissue construction. Current single cell isolation and profiling techniques involve invasive processes, thus are not applicable for single cell manipulation. Here we managed to fabricate peptide-liquid metal hybrid hydrogels as "cell ambers" which were suitable for single cell isolation as well as further handling. The successful preparation of uniform liquid metal nanoparticle allowed the fabrication of peptide-liquid metal hydrogel with excellent recovery property upon mechanical destruction. The alkaline phosphatase instructed supramolecular self-assembly process allowed the formation of micro hydrogel post-filling in PDMS template. The co-culture of the hydrogel precursor and mammalian cells realized the embedding of cells into elastic hydrogels which was the so-called cell ambers. The cell ambers turned out to be biocompatible and capable to support cell survival. Aided with the micro operating system and a laser scanning confocal microscope, we could arrange these as-prepared 3D single cell ambers into various patterns as desired. Our strategy provided the possibility to manipulate single cell, which served as a prototype of cell architecture towards cell-based bioartificial tissues construction.