Microfluidic-assisted Caenorhabditis elegans sorting, a review published by the Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University team
image: A research team from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University reviewed the current status and future prospects of microfluidic-assisted C. elegans sorting view more
Credit: Cyborg and Bionic Systems
A review article by the research team supervised by assistant professor Pengfei Song, with Hang Yuan, an undergraduate student as the first author at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), summarized the development of microfluidic-assisted Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) sorting technology.
The new review article, published in the journal of Cyborg and Bionic Systems, provided a comprehensive review of the up-to-date microfluidic-assisted C. elegans sorting developments from several angles to suit different background researchers.
“C. elegans research has greatly benefited from microfluidic technology with high throughput and accuracy, advancing research in neuroscience, pharmacology and genetics, among others.” explained corresponding author Pengfei Song, an assistant professor at XJTLU.
As the first whole-genome sequenced multicellular model organism, C. elegans has a high degree of homology with mammals. The related results can be applied to the study of mammals. “C. elegans has been a model organism for studying the molecular mechanisms of development and the nervous system since its discovery by Sydney Brenner in the 1970s. If research on extending the lifespan of C. elegans is applied to humans, human anti-aging therapy will be possible.” said first author Hang Yuan, an undergraduate at XJTLU.
C. elegans has high-level behavioral phenotypes such as chemotaxis, electrotaxis, and learning and memory, making it a unique value in biology genetics. Otherwise, C. elegans has transparent bodies and is ideal for optical in vivo imaging, making it convenient for neuron fluorescent labeling and imaging. C. elegans is small in size (1 to 1.3 mm), easy to culture, has a short developmental cycle (3 to 4 d) and life cycle (2 to 3 wk), and thereby is inexpensive for large-volume studies. The advantages of C. elegans spark many research interests and advances in biology, medicine, and engineering, among others.
The newly published paper reviewed the development of C. elegans sorting first. Initially, traditional manual methods for sorting C. elegans involve tedious procedures that may damage the worms and reduce sorting efficiency. In the late 1990s, a complex object parametric analyzer and sorter (COPAS), a commercial high-throughput sorting device, appeared based on optical analysis principles. This device can rapidly automate the sorting of C. elegans and other model organisms, allowing for higher accuracy than manual sorting and greatly reducing experimental time.
However, the COPAS is bulky, expensive, and requires skilled operators and complex operations. To better study C. elegans, portable, low-cost, miniaturized, easy-to-operate, high-throughput, and high-accuracy microfluidic sorting devices are highly desired.
Microfluidics, which originated in the 1990s, enables the manipulation of fluids on the micro- or nano-scale, making it one of the most promising technologies of the 21st century. More and more laboratories are adopting this technology to assist in specific C. elegans population sorting.
The research team classified existing devices in terms of active or passive sorting, physiological characteristics, and sorting strategies to provide engineers with more new design ideas for microfluidic devices. For example, Active sorting methods are mainly based on the active forces to alter the targeted C. elegans to the defined outlets and thereby achieve sorting purposes using microvalves and micropumps. And passive sorting devices usually employ specific microstructures such as “micro-bumps” channels, micropillars, “smart mazes,” and spiral microchannels to sort by defining the passable size of C. elegans.
The team also classified existing devices regarding physiological characteristics, target worm populations, and sorting criteria to provide biologists with a more diverse perspective in drug discovery, neurogenetic research, and other biological studies. For instance, C. elegans of different ages, sizes, and phenotypes exhibit different motion behaviors under local electric fields (i.e., "electrotaxis"). By designing microfluidic devices based on this physiological characteristic, specific C. elegans populations can be screened for gene research and drug screening.
The team proposed that most current microfluidic platforms designed specifically for sorting use serial studies of worms recovering their progeny and remain challenging for long-term studies, such as forward genetic screening.
Looking forward, the team envisioned that parallelization and long-term tracking studies are some future directions for microfluidic sorting platforms. The abundant phenotypic and physiological properties of worms are the basis for more possible sorting criteria or sorting strategies of microfluidic devices. By adding additional sequencing channels and the number of inlets, it will be possible to increase the throughput and prescreening capacity of the device.
“Feynman said there’s plenty of room at the bottom. We expect, by providing this comprehensive review, that each researcher from this multidisciplinary community can effectively find the needed information and, in turn, facilitate future microfluidic-assisted C. elegans sorting research,” said Yuan. The review article calls that developing microfluidic devices or platforms for C. elegans sorting should be guided by practical applications and experimental needs. Future development cannot be limited to the mere patchwork of multiple techniques or the deliberate pursuit of novel but inefficient and expensive devices.
Authors of the paper include Hang Yuan, Wenwen Yuan, Sixuan Duan, Keran Jiao, Quan Zhang, Eng Gee Lim, Min Chen, Chun Zhao, Peng Pan, Xinyu Liu, and Pengfei Song
The authors thank the financial support from the programs of the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education (20KJB460024 and 22KJB460033), Jiangsu Science and Technology Programme – Young Scholar (BK2020041995), Jiangsu Province High-level Innovation and Entrepreneurship Talent Plan (2020-30803), XJTLU Key Programme Special Fund – Exploratory Research Programme (KSF-E-39), and XJTLU Research Development Fund (RDF-18-02-20). The authors also acknowledge the financial support from Xi'an Jiaotong – Liverpool University to W.Y. (PGRS1906040) and S.D. (PGRS1912019). This work is partially supported by the XJTLU AI University Research Centre and Jiangsu Province Engineering Research Centre of Data Science and Cognitive Computation at XJTLU.
The paper, " Microfluidic-Assisted Caenorhabditis elegans Sorting: Current Status and Future Prospects," was published in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems on April 14, 2023, at DOI: https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0011
Reference
Authors: Hang Yuan,1 Wenwen Yuan,1,2 Sixuan Duan,1,2 Keran Jiao,1,3 Quan Zhang,1 Eng Gee Lim,1,2 Min Chen,1,2 Chun Zhao,1,2 Peng Pan,4 Xinyu Liu,4 and Pengfei Song1,2*
Title of original paper: Microfluidic-Assisted Caenorhabditis elegans Sorting: Current Status and Future Prospects
Journal: Cyborg and Bionic Systems
Affiliations:
1School of Advanced Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China
2Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
3Department of Chemistry, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China
4Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
A brief introduction about yourself. (Needed)
About Dr. Pengfei Song:
Pengfei Song is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechatronics and Robotics at Xi’an Jiaotong – Liverpool University. His research interests lie primarily in microsystems, which include microfluidic biosensors and platforms and automation and robotics at the microscale. He published 44 SCI journals (by Apr. of 2023, with an H-Index of 12), including Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Microsystems & Nanoengineering, IEEE-TASE, IEEE/ASME - MEC, among others. Pengfei’s research has received several awards/finalists from major microfluidic and robotic conferences. He serves as the associate editor of IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, the Young Editor of Cyborg and Bionic Systems, and the program committee member of the IEEE International Conference on Manipulation, Automation and Robotics at Small Scales (IEEE-MARSS). He is also the reviewer for many highly recognized journals, such as Engineering, MINE, and IEEE Trans, among others.
Personal Homepage: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6337-7292
About Mr. Hang Yuan:
Hang Yuan is now pursuing his B.Eng. degrees in Mechatronics and Robotic Systems from University of Liverpool and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, under the supervision of assistant professor Pengfei Song. His research interest is lateral flow assay, microfluidic-assisted C. elegans sorting, and nanocellulose-paper-based microfluidics. He published 4 SCI journals and 1 conference paper by Apr. of 2023, including Analytica Chimica Acta, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, and Cyborg and Bionic Systems, among others.
Personal Homepage: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8079-7413
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