“…While a slight excess of thiol was favorable and monomer concentrations modulated hydrogel properties, the researchers focused on optimizing their platform as a three-dimensional (3D) in vitro cancer cell culture model. Peach and colleagues [18] demonstrated the PEGDA-Thiocure hydrogel which utilizes NaHCO3 conforms to anatomical structures in cadavers in situ and produces minimal heat upon crosslinking. In this study, we therefore selected this biomaterial platform and systematically varied across three levels the initial hydration level (25,50, and 75 wt% water) and aqueous NaHCO3 concentration (0.1, 0.175, 0.25 M) and characterized the 9 resulting formulations based on physical, biological, and chemical compatibility with the GBM microenvironment and our proposed application.…”