Emergent release patterning in microenvironments via oil-infused mesoporous surface interaction

Abstract

Diverse living systems and organisms harness the positional and directional distribution of solutes to drive essential functions. Developing engineered platforms that can mimic these complex spatial domains is crucial for achieving more effective operational biotech workstations. To this end, we first demonstrate that oil confined within the nanocavities of mesoporous thin films serves as reservoirs for hydrophobic drug release when immersed in aqueous media, modulating cell behavior in local environments. We further show that the spontaneous interaction of the mesoporous architecture with discrete liquid volumes (droplets) enables radial release as function of volume and incubation time, evidenced by using cell staining as readout of the generation of programmable spatiotemporal action patterns. This approach takes advantage of mesoporous system features coupled with liquid–liquid dynamics to achieve vectorial biological effects, thereby providing a biomimetic platform that emulates natural settings in advanced biotechnological applications.