FluidFM for Neuroscience Pattern, stimulate, inject into, and analyze single neurons - Medical / Health Care - Clinical Services
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Overview Applications and Industries
Pattern
Define where axons shall grow
Pick & Place
Build micro-brains by creating neuronal networks
Stimulate
Apply neurotransmitters anywhere on the neuron
Inject
Deliver CRISPR complexes directly into the nucleus
Observe
Track your manipulated neuron over time
Analyze
Extract cellular content while keeping the neuron intact and alive
Advantages of using FluidFM to boost your neuroscience research
The FluidFM ability to pick cells and place them at a specifically chosen location combined with its unique patterning method allows to create neuronal networks with precision and reproducibility. Control axon growth towards the cell of your choice and establish customized cellular interactions to study how neurons communicate with each other at a molecular level.
Using FluidFM’s force-controlled probes, any soluble compound – for example ions, neurotransmitters, or neurotoxins – and particles like neurotropic viruses can be applied into or on single neurons at distal or proximal end. This makes tedious designs like the Campenot chamber obsolete. The system furthermore tracks the manipulated cells for long-term observation by brightfield and epifluorescence microscopy.
With FluidFM, proteins and plasmids as well as CRISPR reagents can be directly injected into the nucleus. In comparison to other harsh transfection methods, the gentle insertion of the force feedback-controlled probe keeps the neuron fully viable. This makes FluidFM particularly suited for genetic manipulation of sensitive and hard-to-transfect cells such as neurons, stem cells, or primary cells.
FluidFM enables gentle extraction of content from the cytosol or nucleus of single cells, not affecting cellular viability. Therefore, consecutive extractions from the same cell are possible with FluidFM. This overcomes challenges posed by cellular heterogeneity when interpreting data of time-dependent experiments at a single cell level and opens new applications in transcriptomics and proteomics.