Microfluidic platforms for studying sensory perception in Caenorhabditis elegans using high-throughput in vivo functional imaging

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LEE-DISSERTATION-2022.pdf (4.5 MB)
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Lee, Sol Ah
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School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
School established in 1901 as the School of Chemical Engineering; in 2003, renamed School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/72492
Abstract
One of the big questions in neuroscience is how an animal senses external cues via its nervous system and what the molecules involved in sensory transduction are in this process. Caenorhabditis elegans is an excellent model for studying sensory perception at both individual neuronal and molecular levels, because it has well‐characterized neuronal circuits in a simple nervous system and there exist various genetic manipulation tools for C. elegans. However, existing experimental techniques and technologies in the worm have limited not only the type of testable sensory modalities but also the ability to deliver well-controlled stimuli in a high-throughput manner. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to develop and use microfluidic platforms that can easily and accurately deliver various types of stimuli to C. elegans to overcome these existing technical limitations and to understand the mechanism of sensation at the neuronal and molecular levels. The thesis includes three aims: 1) applications of microfluidic platform to understand the mechanism of human TMC as a mechanosensor in C. elegans; 2) high-throughput controlled temperature stimulation and functional imaging in vivo; 3) microfluidic platform for the study of multimodal sensory integrations in C. elegans. The thesis demonstrates that the developed microfluidic platforms allow to deliver well controlled stimuli and to explore high-throughput functional imaging to study the mechanism of sensory perception. These systems could become powerful tools for the study of sensory integration in the nervous system and be used for the identification of genes that specifically affect neuronal activities in either single or multisensory integration. Moreover, these systems could also enable cheap and high-throughput screening tools to discover therapeutic strategies for human disorders.
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2022-05-03
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