Cell Sheet Engineering: Thermoresponsive Harvest

Cell sheet engineering replaces enzymatic digestion with a temperature-responsive polymer coating (PNIPAAm) whose lower critical solution temperature sits at body temperature. This simulator grows a confluent cell monolayer on a 3D dish, lets you tune culture time and temperature, and shows the polymer's hydration state crossing its LCST live. Trigger a thermal harvest below 32 °C and the whole sheet lifts off intact with its cell junctions and ECM preserved; trigger an enzymatic (trypsin) harvest instead and watch individual cells detach and scatter as their surface proteins are cleaved, with junction integrity collapsing — the same trade-off tissue engineers face when choosing how to release a cultured graft.