We have developed techniques to create polymer particles that replicate the size and stiffness of living cells, which was a previously uncharted region in the large world of microparticle fabrication. Our group is now exploring many applications for these hyper-compliant microparticles (HCMPs) in fields as diverse as device calibration, in situ probes, regenerative medicine, and drug delivery.
- Dubary R, Urban JN, Darling EM. (2021) Single‐Cell Microgels for Diagnostics and Therapeutics. Adv Func Mat. PMCID pending. DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.120684
- Gutierrez RA, Fang W, Kesari H*, Darling EM*. (2021) Force sensors for measuring microenvironmental forces during mesenchymal condensation. Biomaterials. PMCID: PMC7906959. DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.120684 (*Co-corresponding author)
- Dubay R, Fiering J, Darling EM. (2020) Effect of elastic modulus on inertial displacement of cell-like particles in microchannels. Biomicrofluidics. doi.org/10.1063/5.0017770
- Meyer K, Labriola NR, Darling EM, Kaehr BJ. (2019) Shape preserved transformation of biological cells
into synthetic hydrogel microparticles. Adv Biosystems. 3(4): 1800285 - Shah MK, Leary EA, Darling EM. (2019) Integration of hyper-compliant microparticles into a 3D melanoma tumor model. J Biomechanics. 82(3): 46-53. PMCID: PMC6310620
- Labriola NR, Sadick JS, Morgan JR, Mathiowitz E,Darling EM. (2018) Cell mimicking microparticles influence the
organization, growth, and mechanophenotype of stem cell spheroids. Ann Biomed Eng. PMCID: PMC6039261 - Labriola NR, Azagury A, Gutierrez R, Mathiowitz E, Darling EM. (2018) Concise Review: Fabrication, customization, and application of cell mimicking microparticles in stem cell science. Stem Cell Trans Med. (7):232-240. PMCID: PMC5788880
- Labriola NR, Mathiowitz E, Darling EM. (2017) Fabricating polyacrylamide microbeads by inverse emulsification to mimic the size and elasticity of living cells. Biomater Sci. 5:41-45. PMCID: PMC5201106