Researchers steer cell alignment with light-powered silicon arrays

Penn State engineers demonstrated that patterned miniature solar cells can steer the alignment of connective-tissue cells without wired electrodes, in laboratory work published in Advanced Functional Materials. Changing the solar cells' size, arrangement and illumination altered the electrical fields that influenced how the cells grew. The team placed commercially sourced lung and dermal fibroblasts on silicon chips and allowed them to grow for seven days. Illuminated samples aligned with the solar-cell patterns, while alignment on unilluminated chips was largely random. The method offers researchers a way to influence cell orientation using light, but it does not provide complete control. The demonstration used flat surfaces; testing in three dimensions and with cardiac or muscle cells is future work.