Nature Communications (Feb 2019)

Cytoskeletal stiffening in synthetic hydrogels

  • Paula de Almeida,
  • Maarten Jaspers,
  • Sarah Vaessen,
  • Oya Tagit,
  • Giuseppe Portale,
  • Alan E. Rowan,
  • Paul H. J. Kouwer

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08569-4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

Read online

Although common in biology, controlled stiffening of hydrogels in vitro is difficult to achieve. Here the authors show how a biomimetic hybrid hydrogel can be stiffened instantaneously and reversibly up to 50 times.