Microfluidic device, system, and method for the study of organisms
AssigneeEcole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (Epfl)
InventorsMatteo Cornaglia, Martin Gijs, Daniel Migliozzi
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Abstract
The invention discloses a microfluidic device for the culture, selection and/or analysis of sample organisms such as nematodes, as well as for other biological entities such as for instance animal embryos. The device features reservoirs, culture chambers and smart filtering systems allowing for the selection of specific populations/specimens of sample organisms, thus permitting long-term cultures thereof as well as phenotypic/behavioural analyses. Systems and methods for using the microfluidic device are within the present disclosure as well.
Claims8
A microfluidic device for at least one of studying phenotypic characteristics of a sample organism, studying behavioral characteristics of the sample organism, and screening chemical/biological compounds for biological activity against the sample organism, the device comprising:
- an inlet reservoir configured to hold the sample organism and a fluid culture medium;
- a plurality of consecutive culture chambers in fluidic connection with each other and with the inlet reservoir;
- and
- an outlet reservoir in fluidic connection with said inlet reservoir and said plurality of culture chambers, wherein
- said inlet reservoir and/or outlet reservoir is (are) operatively connectable to a pressure device adapted to generate a pressure in a way as to push the content of said inlet reservoir, or at least a part of it, into said culture chambers;
- and
- said inlet reservoir, outlet reservoir and each of said culture chambers are each separated by at least one passive valve located at the interface between an element and a consecutive one, each passive valve providing a filtering mechanism allowing a controlled passage of a selected larval stage of Caenorhabditis elegans from an element to a consecutive one upon a pulse pressure and blocking passage of said selected larval stage of Caenorhabditis elegans from an element to a consecutive one for a pressure difference between said consecutive elements below a threshold, wherein each passive valve comprises filtering channels with a width of 8 to 12 um,
- wherein the passive valves are formed by an opening in an elastic material that is configured to deform upon application of the pulse pressure, wherein the deformation upon the pulse pressure allows for size-dependent passage of said selected larval stage of Caenorhabditis elegans.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.