Anal Bioanal Chem DOI 10.1007/s00216-014-7663-5
RESEARCH PAPER
Micro-/nanofluidic device for tunable generation of a concentration gradient: application to Caenorhabditis elegans chemotaxis Zhongwei Wang & Insu Lee & Tae-Joon Jeon & Sun Min Kim
Received: 6 December 2013 / Revised: 22 January 2014 / Accepted: 23 January 2014 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
Abstract In this study, we propose a novel micro-/nanofluidic device that can generate a chemical concentration gradient using a parallel nanochannel as gradient generator. This device is easy to fabricate, showing high reproducibility. Its main feature is the multiple-nanochannel-based gradient generator, which permits the diffusion of small molecules and tunably generates concentration gradients. The nanopattern for the nanochannels can be rapidly and easily fabricated by wrinkling a diamond-like carbon thin film which is deposited on a polydimethylsiloxane substrate; the generation of the concentration gradient can be adjusted by controlling the dimensions of the nanochannels. The developed gradient generator is embedded into a microfluidic device to study chemotaxis in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which has a highly developed chemosensory system and can detect a wide variety of chemical molecules. This device shows good performance for rapid analysis of C. elegans chemotaxis under sodium chloride stimuli. Keywords Micro-/nanofluidic gradient generator . Concentration gradients . Parallel nanochannel . C. elegans chemotaxis
Z. Wang : I. Lee : S. M. Kim (*) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University, 100 Inha-ro, Nam-gu, Incheon 402-751, Republic of Korea e-mail: [email protected] Z. Wang : I. Lee : T.
RESEARCH PAPER
Micro-/nanofluidic device for tunable generation of a concentration gradient: application to Caenorhabditis elegans chemotaxis Zhongwei Wang & Insu Lee & Tae-Joon Jeon & Sun Min Kim
Received: 6 December 2013 / Revised: 22 January 2014 / Accepted: 23 January 2014 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
Abstract In this study, we propose a novel micro-/nanofluidic device that can generate a chemical concentration gradient using a parallel nanochannel as gradient generator. This device is easy to fabricate, showing high reproducibility. Its main feature is the multiple-nanochannel-based gradient generator, which permits the diffusion of small molecules and tunably generates concentration gradients. The nanopattern for the nanochannels can be rapidly and easily fabricated by wrinkling a diamond-like carbon thin film which is deposited on a polydimethylsiloxane substrate; the generation of the concentration gradient can be adjusted by controlling the dimensions of the nanochannels. The developed gradient generator is embedded into a microfluidic device to study chemotaxis in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which has a highly developed chemosensory system and can detect a wide variety of chemical molecules. This device shows good performance for rapid analysis of C. elegans chemotaxis under sodium chloride stimuli. Keywords Micro-/nanofluidic gradient generator . Concentration gradients . Parallel nanochannel . C. elegans chemotaxis
Z. Wang : I. Lee : S. M. Kim (*) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University, 100 Inha-ro, Nam-gu, Incheon 402-751, Republic of Korea e-mail: [email protected] Z. Wang : I. Lee : T.
