Patent ID: 8535879

Claim:
A method for the preparation of a surface structured bulk hydrogel bearing a topographic and chemical pattern, comprising the steps of: (i) providing a primary master having a predetermined topographic pattern, (ii) replicating said primary master by an elastomeric secondary master to obtain a secondary master with said predetermined topographic pattern in its inverse form, (iii) replicating said secondary master by an imprintable curable material of hydrogel precursor molecules which are capable of forming a hydrogel once crosslinked by curing, and crosslinking said material to thereby yield a bulk hydrogel replica made of cross-linked bulk hydrogel bearing the topographic pattern identical to that of the primary master, and (iv) functionalizing the bulk hydrogel replica with a chemical pattern, wherein the functionalizing comprises the step of: functionalizing the protrusions of the topographically structured bulk hydrogel (“inking”), functionalizing the depressions of the topographically structured bulk hydrogel (“print-molding”), or functionalizing the topographically structured bulk hydrogel with a chemical pattern via a metal template on either the primary or secondary master (“transfer-molding”), wherein the bulk hydrogel surface is specifically and locally functionalized with the chemical pattern, wherein the bulk hydrogel replica is a self-supporting elastomeric film, wherein the imprintable curable material in step (iii) is a hydrogel precursor selected from starPEG hydrogels which are end-capped with reactive groups selected from hydroxyl, allyl, amine, isocyanate, cyano, carboxylate, anhydride, halide, silane, thiol, azide, activated ester, acrylate or aldehyde or mixtures thereof, and wherein the starPEG has on average 6 to 8 polymer arms.