Purpose.
HAWK is a realtime C. Elegans tracking package with spatial targeting for mechanical stimulus. From a wider perspective, this project is working towards improving our understanding of the sense of touch. Touch is the least understood of the human senses and yet we have a significant reliance on it. During gentle touch a mechanical stimulus is applied over touch receptor cells. In order to study this interaction in a laboratory the nematode C. Elegans provides a model system with which to experiment with.
Overview.
A worm tracking package that enables the application of a mechanical stimulus profile with spatial targeting is a large step towards improving researchers’ capability to collect quantitative data in studies developing our understanding of the sense of touch. Current methods for applying forces to C. Elegans involve swiping with an eyebrow hair (a highly qualitative approach), and recently the use of micro-scale cantilevers. Our tracker allows the user to select a point on the worm on which they wish to apply some mechanical stimulus profile. The software then tracks the worm in realtime so that that target point will remain at the point of the cantilever. At the conclusion of the experiment, basic analysis will be output from the tracking data. The raw data is also available in a parseable format for more creative analysis.
Bio-X Conference Poster.