Separation of caenorhabditis elegans by electrotaxis in a microdevice

We demonstrate the use of electrotaxis (electric field-induced motion) of C.elegans in separating them in a continuous fashion based on their age. Direct (DC) and alternating (AC) electric fields inside a microchannel can be used to stimulate worms´ locomotion towards the negative pole and to halt their locomotion while localizing them at desired locations in the channel, respectively. By utilizing electrotaxis in a microfluidic device with various local electric field traps, we have separated worms based on their size (age) from a mixed culture in a continuous flow manner. This can potentially automate the conventional time consuming methods to produce monocultures of worms.