Microengineering 3D Collagen Matrices with Tumor-Mimetic Gradients in Fiber Alignment

fiber alignment gradients in biopsy samples are characterized and recreated using a new microfluidic biofabrication technique to achieve tunable sub-millimeter to millimeter scale gradients. Migration experiments on graded alignment show that humanumbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) exhibit increased directionality, persistence, and speed compared to uniform and unaligned fiber architectures.