Book excerpt: A comprehensive look at the latest advances in soft material gradients Tremendous progress has been made in the field of surface-bound soft material gradients in recent years, with intriguing new areas of investigation opening up and advances in bioanalytics changing the way high-throughput screening methods are used in the design and discovery of catalysts and new materials. This volume provides the first complete, up-to-date summary of the progress in this field, showing readers how to harness the powerful properties of soft matter gradients in the design and development of modern functional materials. Contributed chapters from experts in diverse fields help bridge areas of materials science, chemistry, and biomaterials, covering fabrication techniques, gradients in self-assembled monolayers, polymer gradients, dynamic gradient structures, structure and assembly, mechanical properties, sensors, biomaterial applications, protein adsorption, and organization of cells on gradient surfaces. Readers will learn how to implement the techniques described in the book in their own work, while improving efficacy and lowering research and production costs. Soft Matter Gradient Surfaces is an invaluable resource for chemists, physicists, biologists, and engineers, and anyone who would like to take advantage of these unique soft matter building blocks.