Worms and the Human Brain
An experimental tool could help illuminate Parkinson's disease.

Friday, September 14, 2007
Technology Review, Published by MIT

There are no cures for debilitating neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, and researchers still don't understand what causes brain cells to die in patients suffering from these diseases. But MIT researchers hope to speed up the quest for answers and the search for therapies in an unlikely test subject: worms.

Mehmet Fatih Yanik, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, is developing microfluidic devices that could greatly facilitate experiments, including whole-genome screening and drug testing, on small nematode worms called C. elegans. They are a favorite subject of biologists and medical researchers because the worms are tiny and transparent, and researchers can do experiments with them that are not possible with larger animals.

Yanik's polymer chips have two layers of channels. One layer is "like a maze," he says. In this layer, the one-millimeter-long worms are shuttled and sorted at high speed. The channels are only a few hundred micrometers wide and hold very small volumes of liquid. The upper layer is what Yanik calls "the plumbing." It contains valves that control the flow of liquid and worms.

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