Issue 3, 2024

Microfluidic localized hydrogel polymerization enables simultaneous recording of neural activity and behavior in C. elegans

Abstract

Monitoring an animal's brain activity during motion provides a means to interpret brain activity in the context of movement. However, it is challenging to obtain information about the animal's movement during neural imaging in the popular model organism C. elegans due to its small size. Here, we present a microfluidic tool to immobilize only the head region of C. elegans for simultaneous recording of neuronal activity and tail movement. We combine hydrogel photopolymerization and microfluidics to realize controlled head immobilization in a semi-continuous fashion. To optimize the immobilization process, we characterize the hydrogel polymerization under different experimental conditions, including under the effect of fluid flow. We show that the Damköhler number specifically defined for our reactive transport phenomena can predict the success of such photopolymerized hydrogels used for sample immobilization. In addition to simultaneous recording of neural activity and behavior in C. elegans, we demonstrate our method's capability to temporarily reconfigure fluid flow and deliver chemical stimuli to the animal's nose to examine the animal's responses. We envision this approach to be useful for similar recordings for other small motile organisms, as well as scenarios where microfluidics and polymerization are used to control flow and reaction.

Graphical abstract: Microfluidic localized hydrogel polymerization enables simultaneous recording of neural activity and behavior in C. elegans

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 oct. 2023
Accepted
16 nov. 2023
First published
23 nov. 2023

React. Chem. Eng., 2024,9, 666-676

Microfluidic localized hydrogel polymerization enables simultaneous recording of neural activity and behavior in C. elegans

H. J. Lee, J. Vallier and H. Lu, React. Chem. Eng., 2024, 9, 666 DOI: 10.1039/D3RE00516J

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