Selectively controlling the 2D organization of mammalian cells: Templated assembly by selective removal (TASR) for medical applications

This work presents the first ever size-selective sorting of single mammalian cells using a microfabrication-enabled assembly process known as templated assembly by selective removal (TASR). The selective placement and sorting of single mouse lung cancer cells into patterned hemispherical sites on rigid assembly templates using TASR was demonstrated. Nearly 100% of the assembly sites on the template were filled with matching cells (with assembly density as high as 900 sites/mm²) within short assembly times of 3 minutes. Size selective sorting of mammalian cells holds promising potential for implementation in medical applications such as tissue engineering.