title: Directing cell migration with asymmetric micropatterns.
abstract: This report shows that the direction of polarization of attached mammalian cells determines the direction in which they move. Surfaces micropatterned with appropriately functionalized self-assembled monolayers constrain individual cells to asymmetric geometries (for example, a teardrop); these geometries polarize the morphology of the cell. After electrochemical desorption of the self-assembled monolayers removes these constraints and allows the cells to move across the surface, they move toward their blunt ends.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Xingyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Derek A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Bruzewicz
authors.forename: Amy P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Matthieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Piel
authors.forename: George M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Whitesides
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019556:COS Cells; D002450:Cell Communication; D002465:Cell Movement; D016764:Cell Polarity; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells