Patent 7919138 was granted and assigned to Duke University on April, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Methods of attaching a ligand to a surface are described that include contacting a surface with a substrate containing an amphiphilic comb polymer. The substrate is configured to provide a pattern of the amphiphilic comb polymer on a selected region of the surface. The substrate can be separated from the surface leaving the amphiphilic comb polymer on the selected region of the surface, thus providing a selected region of the surface having amphiphilic comb polymer on it. A ligand can then be deposited on the surface such that the selected region of the surface having the amphiphilic comb polymer is substantially free of the ligand.