School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
Adv Healthc Mater. 2021 Aug;10(15):e2001887. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202001887. Epub 2021 Apr 23.
Image-based screening of multicellular model organisms is critical for both investigating fundamental biology and drug development. Current microfluidic techniques for high-throughput manipulation of small model organisms, although useful, are generally complicated to operate, which impedes their widespread adoption by biology laboratories. To address this challenge, this paper presents an ultrasimple and yet effective approach, "microswimmer combing," to rapidly isolate live small animals on an open-surface array. This approach exploits a dynamic contact line-combing mechanism designed to handle highly active microswimmers. The isolation method is robust, and the device operation is simple for users without a priori experience. The versatile open-surface device enables multiple screening applications, including high-resolution imaging of multicellular organisms, on-demand mutant selection, and multiplexed chemical screening. The simplicity and versatility of this method provide broad access to high-throughput experimentation for biologists and open up new opportunities to study active microswimmers by different scientific communities.
基于图像的多细胞模式生物筛选对于基础生物学研究和药物开发都至关重要。目前用于高通量操作小型模式生物的微流控技术虽然很有用，但操作通常比较复杂，这阻碍了它们在生物学实验室中的广泛采用。针对这一挑战，本文提出了一种超简单但有效的方法，即“微泳者梳理”，可在开放式表面阵列上快速分离活体小动物。该方法利用了一种动态接触线梳理机制，旨在处理高活性的微泳者。该分离方法具有鲁棒性，并且设备操作对于没有先验经验的用户来说非常简单。这种多功能开放式表面设备支持多种筛选应用，包括对多细胞生物进行高分辨率成像、按需突变体选择以及多重化学筛选。该方法的简单性和多功能性为生物学家提供了广泛的高通量实验访问途径，并为不同科学领域研究活跃的微泳者开辟了新的机会。
