PUBLICATION
Microfluidic devices for behavioral screening of multiple Zebrafish Larvae: Design investigation process
- Authors
- Khalili, A., van Wijngaarden, E., Youssef, K., Zoidl, G.R., Rezai, P.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-210905-3
- Date
- 2021
- Source
- Biotechnology Journal 17(1): e2100076 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Zoidl, Georg
- Keywords
- Zebrafish, behavioral screening, electrical stimulation, microfluidics, multi-fish screening
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Lab-On-A-Chip Devices*
- Larva
- Zebrafish*
- PubMed
- 34480402 Full text @ Biotechnol. J.
Citation
Khalili, A., van Wijngaarden, E., Youssef, K., Zoidl, G.R., Rezai, P. (2021) Microfluidic devices for behavioral screening of multiple Zebrafish Larvae: Design investigation process. Biotechnology Journal. 17(1):e2100076.
Abstract
Microfluidic devices have been introduced for phenotypic screening of zebrafish larvae in both fundamental and pre-clinical research. One of the remaining challenges for the broad use of microfluidic devices is their limited throughput, especially in behavioural assays. Previously, we introduced the tail locomotion of a semi-mobile zebrafish larva evoked on-demand with electric signal in a microfluidic device. Here, we report the lessons learned for increasing the number of specimens from one to four larvae in this device. Multiple parameters including loading and testing time per fish and loading and orientation efficiencies were refined to optimize the performance of modified designs. Simulations of the flow and electric field within the final device provided insight into the flow behavior and functionality of traps when compared to previous single-larva devices. Outcomes led to a new design which decreased the testing time per larva by approximately 60%. Further, loading and orientation efficiencies increased by more than 80%. Critical behavioural parameters such as response duration and tail beat frequency were similar in both single and quadruple-fish devices. The developed microfluidic device has significant advantages for greater throughput and efficiency when behavioral phenotyping is required in various applications, including chemical testing in toxicology and gene screening. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping