The liver is a target of in vitro tissue engineering despite its capability to regenerate in vivo. The construction of liver tissues in vitro remains challenging. In this review, conventional 3D cultures of hepatocytes are first discussed. Recent advances in the 3D culturing of liver cells are then summarized in the context of in vitro liver tissue reconstruction at the micro- and macroscales. ...

Microscale techniques have been applied to biological assays for nearly two decades, but haven't been widely integrated as common tools in biological laboratories. The significant differences between several physical phenomena at the microscale versus the macroscale have been exploited to provide a variety of new types of assays (such as gradient production or spatial cell patterning). However,...

We develop a general multiscale method for coupling atomistic and continuum simulations using the framework of the heterogeneous multiscale method (HMM). Both the atomistic and the continuum models are formulated in the form of conservation laws of mass, momentum and energy. A macroscale solver, here the finite volume scheme, is used everywhere on a macrogrid; whenever necessary the macroscale ...

A microscale thermal field-flow fractionation (micro-TFFF) system has been designed, fabricated, and characterized. Motivation for miniaturization of TFFF systems was established by examining the geometrical scaling of the fundamental TFFF theory. Miniaturization of conventional macroscale TFFF systems was made possible through utilization of micromachining technologies. Fabrication of the micr...

Two-dimensional protein crystallization on lipid monolayers at a quiescent air/water interface is now a well-established process, but it only operates under a very restricted set of conditions and on a very slow time scale. We have recently been able to significantly extend the conditions under which the proteins will crystalize as well as speed up the process by subjecting the interface to a s...

Nanostructured metals achieve extraordinary strength but suffer from low thermal stability, both a consequence of a high fraction of interfaces. Overcoming this tradeoff relies on making the interfaces themselves thermally stable. Here we show that the atomic structures of bi-metal interfaces in macroscale nanomaterials suitable for engineering structures can be significantly altered via changi...

The simulation of the Liquid Composite Moulding process is an important step for the manufacturing of composites with textile reinforcements. However, its fast direct numerical simulation is impossible on the microscale due to computational complexity reasons. We have to resort to the macroscale instead. Here, an essential task is the fast and accurate prediction of the permeability of textile ...

Traditional nanosized photocatalysts usually have high photocatalytic activity but can not be efficiently recycled. Film-shaped photocatalysts on the substrates can be easily recycled, but they have low surface area and/or high production cost. To solve these problems, we report on the design and preparation of efficient and easily recyclable macroscale photocatalysts with nanostructure by usin...

Hydrogels play an important role in macroscale delivery systems by enabling the transport of cells and molecules. Here we present a facile and benign method to prepare a dextran-based hydrogel (Dex-sHSA) using human serum albumin (HSA) as a simultaneous drug carrier and covalent cross-linker. Drug binding affinity of the albumin protein was conserved in the thiolation step using 2-iminothiolane...