Patent ID: 8703904

Claim:
A method for producing a hydrogel comprising: reacting a polymer comprising two or more azide functional groups with an oligopeptide comprising at least one covalently bonded polymerizable functional group and an optionally substituted cyclic alkyne under conditions sufficient to produce a [3+2] cycloaddition reaction between the azide functional group and the acetylenic functional group to form a hydrogel, wherein said polymerizable functional group comprises an olefinic moiety, an acetylinic moiety, an acrylate moiety, norborene, a methacrylate moiety, or a combination thereof; and patterning said hydrogel, wherein said step of patterning the hydrogel comprises: contacting said hydrogel with a precursor mixture comprising a photoinitiator and a thio compound comprising a thiol functional group under conditions sufficient to diffuse the precursor mixture into the hydrogel; forming a desired pattern within the hydrogel by a photolithography process to produce a patterned hydrogel; and removing at least a portion of the unreacted precursor mixture from the patterned hydrogel.