title: Micro-/nanofluidic device for tunable generation of a concentration gradient: application to Caenorhabditis elegans chemotaxis.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University, 100 Inha-ro, Nam-gu, Incheon, 402-751, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Zhongwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Insu
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Tae-Joon
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.forename: Sun Min
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology*; D002633:Chemotaxis; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*