Affordable optofluidic add-on for continuous light sheet imaging of larval and adult c. elegans

This paper introduces an optimized and affordable optofluidic add-on device for continuous and rapid light sheet imaging of C. elegans. Platform utilizes an optofluidic chip with integrated PDMS microlens to generate a light-sheet and rapidly images worms flowing in a microchannel via a regular microscope. Validation results on control and 6-OHDA-exposed worms demonstrates the ability of platform in qualitative and quantitative imaging of neuronal degenerations at different ages. The developed affordable platform enables a conventional fluorescent microscope to offer high-content and high-throughput light-sheet images of C. elegans populations which is invaluable to aging, neurodegeneration, and drug discovery studies.