Microfluidic devices and systems for neuroscience studies in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans)

C. elegans, a tiny, transparent roundworm with a simple nervous system (302 neurons) and a diverse repertoire of behavioral outputs, has been extensively used as a model organism in neuroscience. Its optically accessible, compact nervous system offers a unique advantage for understanding the ability of the nervous system to compute various behaviors of an organism. C. elegans, however poses a challenge as a model organism -- due to its small size (1 mm in length and 40--50 mum in diameter), conducting experimental procedures on the worm is skill-intensive and time consuming. To this end, microfluidic technology has recently emerged as a preferred tool for conducting experimental procedures on the worm and this thesis contributes towards the development of such microfluidic approaches.;We demonstrated the design and development of microfluidic devices and systems that serve the following applications: a) Immobilization - We developed two microfluidic approaches for immobilizing C. elegans on-chip. These approaches are easy to implement, allow worm recovery within a few seconds after immobilization and can be easily adopted for conducting cell developmental and neuron regeneration studies in C. elegans. b) Calcium Imaging - We developed an automated microfluidic platform for collecting stimulus-evoked calcium imaging data from single neurons. We utilized the platform to monitor neuronal activity in the chemosensory neuron - ASH - in response to different stimuli (chemical and electrical) and characterized its dependence on the age of the worm. The platform enabled us to hypothesize that the neuronal functionality is altered with age.;We believe that the use of microfluidic devices will allow the observation of large scale neuronal dynamics in C. elegans. Consequently, we foresee the use of computational procedures for uncovering new insights about the worm's nervous system. To this end, we propose a hardware based computational platform for emulating the worm's nervous system. And, as a step towards this futuristic goal, we present an analog circuit that emulates the observed ASH neuronal activity in C. elegans.;We envision that the work demonstrated in this thesis will expand the toolsets available for conducting neuroscience studies in C. elegans.