Marangoni flows drive the alignment of fibrillar cell-laden hydrogels. Author Bryan Nerger, P-T Brun, Celeste Nelson Publication Year 2020 Type Journal Article Abstract When a sessile droplet containing a solute in a volatile solvent evaporates, flow in the droplet can transport and assemble solute particles into complex patterns. Transport in evaporating sessile droplets has largely been examined in solvents that undergo complete evaporation. Here, we demonstrate that flow in evaporating aqueous sessile droplets containing type I collagen-a self-assembling polymer-can be harnessed to engineer hydrated networks of aligned collagen fibers. We find that Marangoni flows direct collagen fiber assembly over millimeter-scale areas in a manner that depends on the rate of self-assembly, the relative humidity of the surrounding environment, and the geometry of the droplet. Skeletal muscle cells that are incorporated into and cultured within these evaporating droplets collectively orient and subsequently differentiate into myotubes in response to aligned networks of collagen. Our findings demonstrate a simple, tunable, and high-throughput approach to engineer aligned fibrillar hydrogels and cell-laden biomimetic materials. Journal Sci Adv Volume 6 Issue 24 Pages eaaz7748 Date Published 2020 Jun ISSN Number 2375-2548 DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aaz7748 Alternate Journal Sci Adv PMCID PMC7292634 PMID 32582851 PubMedPubMed CentralGoogle ScholarBibTeXEndNote X3 XML