An automated microfluidic platform for calcium imaging of chemosensory neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans
Here, we describe the development of an automated microfluidic-based platform for performing automated neuronal functional (calcium) imaging in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. We believe that such a technology will be an essential tool for obtaining repeatable and accurate functional imaging data from a large population of worms, in order to minimize stochastic biological noise and identify statistically significant trends.
Research Highlights
Petra Dittrich reviews the current literature in miniaturisation and related technologies.
Development of a MEMS based dynamic rheometer
We describe a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) approach to measure the dynamic rheology of soft matter, which is capable of measuring moduli from 50 Pa to 10 kPa over a range of 3 to 3000 rad s-1 using less than 5 nL of sample. This device provides a new way to characterize dynamic microrheology of novel materials that will prove useful in many areas including biorheology, microfluidics and polymer thin films.
Ultrasound-controlled cell aggregation in a multi-well chip
We demonstrate a microplate platform for parallelized aggregation and positioning of cells, based on frequency-modulated ultrasonic actuation. The method is biocompatible over more than 12 hours and will enable dynamic studies of cell-cell interactions by high-resolution optical microscopy.
Protein synthesis in a device with nanoporous membranes and microchannels
Cell-free protein synthesis was implemented in an array device consisting of inner wells and outer wells. A nanoporous membrane and a microchannel were integrated for supplying nutrients from the outer wells to the inner wells where reactions took place.
High performance magnetically controllable microturbines
High performance magnetically controllable microturbines with improved surface smoothness are successfully fabricated through two-photon photopolymerization of Fe3O4 nanoparticles doped photoresists towards microchannel functionalization.
Passive self-synchronized two-droplet generation
We describe the use of two passive components to achieve controllable and alternating droplet generation in a microfluidic device. The approach overcomes the problems associated with irregularities in channel dimensions and fluid flow rates, and allows precise pairing of alternating droplets in a high-throughput manner. We study droplet generation and self-synchronization in a quantitative fashion by using high-speed image analysis.
Solving problems
George Whitesides considers the lack of commercial development of lab-on-a-chip and microfluidic technologies.
On-chip immunoprecipitation for protein purification
We describe an antibody functionalised microcolumn and an optimised method for performing on-chip immunoprecipitation on microlitre sample volumes, applying it to the enrichment of proteins from cellular lysates.
Micropillar array chips toward new immunodiagnosis
In this paper, we demonstrate the possibility to use a micropillar array (45 [small mu]m in height, 100 [times] 100 [small mu]m square cross section) to perform molecular immunodiagnosis.