Facile Photopatterning of Perfusable Microchannels in Synthetic Hydrogels to Recreate Microphysiological Environments

The fabrication of perfusable hydrogels is crucial for recreating in vitro microphysiological environments. Existing strategies to fabricate complex microchannels in hydrogels involve sophisticated equipment/techniques. A cost‐effective, facile, versatile, and ultra‐fast methodology is reported to fabricate perfusable microchannels of complex shapes in photopolymerizable hydrogels without the need of specialized equipment or sophisticated protocols. The methodology utilizes one‐step ultraviolet (UV) light‐triggered cross‐linking and a photomask printed on inexpensive transparent films to photopattern PEG‐norbornene hydrogels. Complex and intricate patterns with high resolution, including perfusable microchannels, can be fabricated in