Biotemplates

Imagine a material that provides cells not just a surface—but a three-dimensional environment that mimics life itself.

Aero materials enable advanced biotemplating by offering highly porous, conductive, and structurally tunable scaffolds for controlled cell growth and tissue modeling.

The challenge

Biological systems are inherently three-dimensional, yet many existing cell culture and tissue engineering approaches rely on flat or poorly structured environments. This leads to:

  • limited physiological relevance of in vitro models

  • restricted cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions

  • poor control over nutrient flow and diffusion

  • lack of scalability for complex tissue structures

Conventional scaffolds often lack the combination of structural precision, permeability, and functional integration required for next-generation biomedical applications.

How our aero materials help

Aero materials provide a highly porous, interconnected 3D network that can act as a biotemplate for cellular organization and growth. Key functional advantages include:

  • True 3D scaffold architecture
    Cells can grow, migrate, and organize within a volumetric structure rather than on a surface

  • High porosity and permeability
    Efficient transport of nutrients, oxygen, and signaling molecules

  • Biocompatible by design

    Whether as a pure-carbon scaffold or in combination with hydrogel matrices, our materials support cell viability and adhesion without adverse biological responses — adaptable to the specific requirements of your application.

  • Tunable structural properties
    Pore size, density, and mechanical characteristics can be adjusted for specific cell types

  • Electrical conductivity
    Can be selectively integrated to enable stimulation or sensing in electroactive tissues (e.g. neural or muscle systems)

  • Lightweight and scalable fabrication
    Allows large-area or complex geometries without significant material mass

This enables more realistic biological environments and supports functional tissue development in vitro.

Example applications

3D cell culture platforms
More physiologically relevant models for research, testing, and drug discovery

Tissue engineering scaffolds for research and model development
Templates for growing structured tissues such as skin, muscle, or neural networks

Regenerative medicine research
Supporting cell differentiation and organization in controlled environments

Bioelectronic interfaces
Conductive scaffolds for stimulation and monitoring of cellular activity

Researching the next generation of biological systems and tissue models?

Get in touch

Relevant Academic Research & Publications

With a porosity exceeding 99%, interconnected hollow tubes, and a tuneable surface chemistry, aeromaterial closely mimics the architecture of biological tissue. Researchers have successfully used it as a scaffold for mammalian cell growth across multiple cell types.

A tunable scaffold of microtubular graphite for 3D cell growth Lamprecht et al. — ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2016 The first study to show aerographite as a viable scaffold for 3D mammalian cell culture. Fibroblast cells successfully adhered to and invaded the bulk material over four days, establishing the biological compatibility of the structure. Read the publication

Wet-chemical assembly of 2D nanomaterials into lightweight, microtube-shaped, and macroscopic 3D networks Rasch et al. — ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2019 Describes a method for creating tailored 3D scaffold variants by incorporating different carbon nanomaterials into the aeromaterial framework — allowing mechanical stiffness to be tuned across several orders of magnitude, from tissue-like softness to structural rigidity. Read the publication

Aerohydrogels as tailored cell scaffolds Hartig et al. — ChemRxiv, 2025 (preprint, peer review pending) Introduces a new generation of aeromaterial-based hydrogel scaffolds with independently controllable mechanical, chemical, and electrical properties. Successfully tested with skeletal muscle cells and iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, with visible cell-driven contractions observed over several weeks — opening pathways for tissue engineering, cardiac patches, and biohybrid robotics. Read the preprint