Controlled spatial and conformational display of immobilised bone morphogenetic protein-2 and osteopontin signalling motifs regulates osteoblast adhesion and differentiation in vitro

Background The interfacial molecular mechanisms that regulate mammalian cell growth and differentiation have important implications for biotechnology (production of cells and cell products) and medicine (tissue engineering, prosthetic implants, cancer and developmental biology). We demonstrate here that engineered protein motifs can be robustly displayed to mammalian cells in vitro in a highly controlled manner using a soluble protein scaffold designed to self assemble on a gold surface.