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Using a technique that introduces tiny wrinkles into sheets of graphene, researchers have developed new textured surfaces for culturing cells in the lab that better mimic the complex surroundings in which cells grow in the body. Traditionally, cell culture in the lab has been done in petri dishes and on other flat surfaces.
But in the body, cells grow in considerably more complex environments. Research has shown that a cell’s physical surroundings can influence its shape, physiology, and even the expression of its genes. That has led scientists in the last decade or so to look for ways of culturing cells in laboratory settings that are a bit more complex.Image credit: Hurt lab/Brown University
