Electronic communication of cells with a surface mediated by boronic acid saccharide interactions† †Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental detail and supporting figures. See DOI: 10.1039/c5cc04311e Click here for additional data file.

Contact angle: Contact angle apparatus, equipped with a charged coupled device (CCD) KP-M1E/K camera (Hitachi), was attached to a personal computer for video capture. Dynamic contact angles were recorded as a micro-syringe was used to quasi-statically add water to or remove water from the drop place on the chip. The drop monitored as a live video image, acquisition rate 4 frames per second. FTA (First Ten Angstroms) Video Analysis software v1.96 was used for the analysis of the contact angle of a droplet of water (UHP) at the three-phase intersection. The averages and standard errors of contact angles were determined from five different measurements made for surfaces modified with the self-assembled monolayer (SAM) only and those further modified with the boronic acid SAM.