C. elegans on a chip

Rather than studying C. elegans one at a time, a device developed by researchers at Harvard University and Tulane University allows an array of individual worms to be observed over their entire lifetime. Each worm gets its own chamber, with food delivered and waste removed via microfluidic channels. An optional wedge-shaped channel in each chamber can immobilize the worms for high-magnification imaging (at least 400 X, the researchers say) or laser microsurgery. The device should be useful for observing long-term behaviors, phenotypes that may change with age or in response to a stimuli, and variation among a population.

Research paper: Lifespan-on-a-chip: microfluidic chambers for performing lifelong observation of C. elegans. S. Elizabeth Hulme, Sergey S. Shevkoplyas, Alison P. McGuigan, Javier Apfeld, Walter Fontana and George M. Whitesides. Lab Chip, 2010, 10, 589–597 DOI: 10.1039/b919265d