Watching how worms behave in droplets is the basis for a new assay that could find use in high-throughput drug screening.rnCaenorhabditis elegans are small worms that have been widely used as a model organism for fundamental research on neurodegenerative disease and related drug discovery. Now, Bingcheng Lin, Jianhua Qin and colleagues at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, China, have designed an on-chip assay to make studying these creatures cheaper and easier.rnThe team's microfluidic system works by converting an aqueous suspension of worms into droplets separated by a carrier oil. The dimension of each droplet is a perfect match for the size of a single worm. Lin explains: 'The droplets serve as separate microreactors, in which each individual worm's behaviour in response to chemicals can be characterised in real time.'
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