A vertebrate model, zebrafish is popularly used to investigate biological systems, especially for neurological disorders and drug discovery. This animal has experimental advantages such as fecundity, breeding convenience, genetic homology to human, and optical transparency. However, laborious and invasive procedures have been required for electrophysiological studies for brain investigation. In this project, we developed an Integrated Zebrafish Analysis Platform (iZAP) for the systematic analysis of neurological disorders and drug discovery. The iZAP is an integrated electrical microfluidic system for the multichannel electrophysiology of live zebrafishes. This platform allows spontaneous alignment of zebrafish and maintains, over days, close contact between the head and multiple surface electrodes, enabling non-invasive long-term electroencephalographic recording. First, we validate the utility of our system to record brain signals of electrographic seizure events, induced by pentylenetetrazole and quantify the seizure level using our unique algorithm. Then, we use this system and a zebrafish model presenting human seizure genome to understand pathological development and apply drug screening procedures. Also, we use this animal system to investigate the optical induction of epileptic scenarios in young and adult stages of brain developments. We believe that such promising features of this integrated microfluidic analysis platform will greatly facilitate the precision systematic analysis of neurological disorders and high-throughput drug screening.
Project end date: 08/12/19