Osaic hydrogels: One-step formation of multiscale soft materials

We introduce the one-step, continuous formation of mosaic hydrogel sheets. A microfluidic device allows controllable incorporation of secondary biopolymers within a flowing biopolymer sheet followed by a cross-linking step that retains the microscale composition. Information is encoded, mosaic stiffness and diffusivity patterns are created, and tessellations are populated with biomolecules, microparticles and viable primary cells. The extension to 3D soft material assemblies is demonstrated.