Scientists use molecular tethers, chemical 'light sabers' for tissue engineering

Researchers have unveiled a new strategy to keep proteins intact and functional in synthetic biomaterials for tissue engineering. Their approach modifies proteins at a specific point so that they can be chemically tethered to the scaffold using light. Since the tether can also be cut by laser light, this method can create evolving patterns of signal proteins throughout a biomaterial scaffold to grow tissues made up of different types of cells.

from Engineering News -- ScienceDaily http://bit.ly/2LY0mIM