Fig. 1.

Device fabrication and cell suspension using a sacrificial layer. Our hybrid force assay platform is created by augmenting an elastomeric micropost array (a) with a dehydrated layer of the thermoresponsive polymer PNIPAAm (b). Isolated and balled immature cardiomyocytes (red) are seeded onto the platform (c) and allowed to spread for 4–7 days (d). Once the cells have spread across the posts, the sacrificial layer is dissolved away (e) by temporarily cooling the media to just below 32 °C, leaving the immature heart cells spread across pairs and triads of posts