DATA EXAMPLES

Figure 1. Ionic crossflow co-deposition of a collagen network in a microfluidic channel, Alginate, mixed with the collagen, forms a solid gel by crosslinking with calcium ions, diffusing through the small chitosan membrane spanning the transchannel pore in the bottom center of the field of view. This gif was created by time-lapse videomicroscopy in phase contrast. The colormap with arrow vector field represents local displacement within the growing gel (a few spurious arrows were assigned to image artefacts outside the gel). More details at https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6439/ab8ebf.

Figure 2. Collagen gel aspiration through a capillary tube. Polystyrene microspheres were embedded in the gel for better image contrast. The leading edge of the gel shows compression. The sides of the gel touching the capillary tube walls display shear. The trailing edge of the gel folds in half to enter the capillary tube. This technique forms the basis for a tissue construct that is dense and with aligned collagen network, but also with some domain complexity. More details at https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.27308.

Figure 3. Confocal reflectance image of breast cancer cells embedded in a dense collagen network immediately after gel aspiration-ejection. The gray signal is laser reflectance, primarily from the collagen network. The red signal is a fluorescent dye conjugated to phalloidin, which binds the F-actin cytoskeleton of cells with high affinity. The three long cell processes visible in the lower central portion of the field of view are co-aligned with the aspiration axis/pressure gradient. More details at https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.27308.