Figure 4.

(A) The steps of the micromolding method: First of all, the cells are suspended in a hydrogel precursor solution, and then the mixed solution is molded by using a PDMS stamp. Then the hydrogel precursor solution is photocrosslinked to form microgel modules. Finally, the mold is removed to create a set of micromolded microgel module units that can be collected into the solution by simple cleaning. (B) Microgel modules can be molded into various shapes (such as square prisms, disks and chords) with different kinds of prepolymer solutions. (Reproduced with permission from the Reference [39]).