R. Thangam, S. Y. Kim, N. Kang, H. Hong, H.-J. Lee, S. Lee, K.-R. Tag,  K. Kim, H. Kang
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
H.-J. Lee, K.-R. Tag, J.-P. Ahn, H.-K. Kim
Advanced Analysis Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Republic of Korea
D. Jeong, W. Y. Jang
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Korea University Anam Hospital, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
Y. Zhu, H.-J. Kim, A. Khademhosseini
Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation, Los Angeles, CA 90064, USA
W. Sun
Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
S.-W. Cho
Department of Biotechnology, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea
Center for Nanomedicine, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea
J. S. Kim
Department of Chemistry, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
R. Paulmurugan
Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
Department of Radiology, Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
H. Kang
Department of Biomicrosystem Technology, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR : Heemin Kang

In natural microenvironment, various proteins containing adhesive ligands in fibrous and non-fibrous structures dynamically couple and decouple to regulate stem cell fate. Herein, materials presenting movably couplable ligands are developed by grafting liganded gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to a substrate followed by flexibly grafting liganded movable linear nanomaterials (MLNs) to the substrate via a long bendable linker, thereby creating a space between the MLNs and the AuNPs in the decoupled state. Magnetic control of the MLNs decreases this space via the bending of the linker to couple the MLNs to the AuNPs. Remote control of ligand coupling stimulates integrin recruitment to the coupled ligands, thereby non-toxically facilitating the focal adhesion, mechanosensing, and potential differentiation of stem cells, which is suppressed by ligand decoupling. Versatile tuning of size, aspect ratio, distributions, and ligands of the MLNs can help to decipher dynamic ligand-coupling-dependent stem cell fate to advance regenerative therapies.