Cell culture is a method used for growing living cells artificially outside their natural environment under controlled conditions. It is used for a large range of applications such as studies of cellular functions, drug discovery, biotechnologies and regenerative medicine. Cell culture in vitro is generally performed on plastic substrates, especially multi-well plates or Petri dishes that are made of polystyrene, a synthetic and very stiff material. This stiff substrate can bias the experimental results and mask cellular responses. Such culture conditions contrast drastically with the conditions of the cellular microenvironment in vivo, where the cells are surrounded by a soft extra-cellular matrix (ECM) that provides mechanical and biochemical signals. Bioengineers have recently made developments on hydrogels and surface coatings that better mimic the natural ECM and present a tunable stiffness in a physiological range and active biomolecules (growth factors, peptides) that can target specific cellular receptors and trigger a cellular response. However, to date, there are still very few commercially available alternatives to the traditional plastic plates for high throughput cell culture in more relevant physiological conditions. In the POC BioActiveCoatings, we have optimized the automated deposited of layer-by-layer biopolymeric films in multiple-well microplates. These biomimetic nano-coatings, made of natural biomolecules such as polysaccharides and polypeptides, exhibit a controlled stiffness and bioactivity. These parameters that can be independently controlled and custom-adapted to any specific cellular type. The biomimetic film-coated microplates will be used in research and industry to perform high throughput cell studies intro. They will offer an innovative tool for disease diagnosis and regenerative medicine.
