University of Mons 2 articles published in JoVE Bioengineering Preparation of Hydroxy-PAAm Hydrogels for Decoupling the Effects of Mechanotransduction Cues Thomas Grevesse1, Marie Versaevel1, Sylvain Gabriele1 1Laboratoire Interfaces et Fluides Complexes, Université de Mons We present a new polyacrylamide hydrogel, called hydroxy-PAAm, that allows a direct binding of ECM proteins with minimal cost or expertise. The combination of hydroxy-PAAm hydrogels with microcontact printing facilitates independent control of many cues of the natural cell microenvironment for studying cellular mechanostransduction. Neuroscience Improved Preparation and Preservation of Hippocampal Mouse Slices for a Very Stable and Reproducible Recording of Long-term Potentiation Agnès Villers1, Laurence Ris1 1Department of Neurosciences, Research Institute for Biosciences, University of Mons This paper presents a complete methodology to prepare and preserve in vitro acute hippocampal slices from adult mice. This protocol allows the recording of very stable long-lasting long-term potentiation (LTP) for more than 8 hours with a success rate of 95%.