Local microinjection near nerve axon of C. elegans with hydro-gel beads based on micromanipulation

This paper presents a local microinjection system using hydro-gel beads based on micromanipulation near nerve axon of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), which is one of the important model organism for disease analysis and nerve analysis. The hydro-gel beads were prepared using Polyethylene Glycol Diacrylate (PEG-DA) to encapsulate biomaterials. The tip of micro-pipette tool was used to attach the hydro-gel beads by a negative pressure with a syringe. The local-nano-injection technique was demonstrated to inject fluorescent materials into C. elegans using the micro-pipette tool by a piezo actuator. The microinjection was evaluated in a three dimensional space by a confocal microscope. The proposed microinjection method is considered to be important as future micro-nano surgery system for life innovation using model organism.