It has been reported to control cell behaviors via patterns, but the control of cell nucleus shape was rarely reported and the severe deformation was unexpected. The research of Prof. Ding group revealed that cell nucleus could be severely deformed via micropillar patterns.

Subsequently, they designed different patterns and realized different kinds of control, including crosses, ball with hillock, dumb-bell shape, squares and so on. This paper has been published in Biomaterials (IF=7.882)

Control of cell nucleus shapes via micropillar patterns

Zhen Pan, Ce Yan, Rong Peng, Yingchun Zhao, Yao He, and Jiandong Ding*, Biomaterials, 33, 1730-1735 (2012)

       丁建东课题组还证实，这些细胞核严重自我变形的骨髓基质干细胞不仅仍然具有活力，而且保持着增殖和被诱导成骨分化的能力。有关核变形的生物学意义以及这一发现对于新型生物材料设计的作用仍待探索。