University researchers Shawn Lockery and Kristy Lawton stared in awe at a computer screen showing a movie clip of a slithering worm Monday afternoon.
These worms could eventually provide a better understanding of the human brain and other organisms. Lockery, a biology professor, and Lawton, a research associate, recently helped create new tools to better study these worms, also called nematodes. The new devices could also appeal to pharmaceutical companies to test drugs, but this has yet to be determined.
Researchers refer to the new tools as an “artificial soil” device and a “worm guide.” Both are thin and transparent. Previously, scientists studied the animals in agar petri dishes, but the dishes didn’t mimic the worm’s natural environment – soil.
Using the artificial soil device, researchers can control the roundworm’s environment and can create a “micro world” for the organism crawl to in, Lockery said.
The worm guide allows scientists to better control where the worm goes, and they can control the shape of the organism’s body movement. This allows researchers to better examine the roundworm under a microscope.
The Lockery Lab, which is focused on studying how the nervous system controls behavior, uses the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. Researchers study this worm because it doesn’t have many brain cells when compared to the human brain, Lockery said.
“It only has 302 neurons or brain cells,” Lockery said. “To put that in perspective, you have about 10 to the 12th power (1,000,000,000,000).”
Scientists may figure out how a nematode’s brain works within a lifetime, Lockery said.
“To understand how the brain works, ultimately you have to understand it completely,” Lockery said. “We think the lessons we learn from understanding this brain completely will apply to understanding bigger brains.”
The National Institute of Mental Health and National Science Foundation funded the research, which is being published in the Journal of Neurophysiology.
Lockery said he’s unsure who exactly will use the new tools.
“We can’t say for sure, but we’ve already had a lot of interest from other people who study this same topic, so it will probably change how this important biological system is studied in many laboratories,” Lockery said.
The new tools could appeal to pharmaceutical companies to test drugs, Lockery said.
The Office of Technology Transfer, which aims to bring new technology to the public, will look into the devices to see if they have any commercial appeal, said Linda Hansen, a senior technology development associate. The office is currently waiting on more paperwork from Lockery, but Hansen said the department expects to start reviewing the papers by the end of this week.
Lawton, who started in the lab as an undergraduate student, said she has been helping Lockery with experiments involving the new tools.
“He’s the brains behind it, and I’ve been the hands,” she said.
Lawton said she enjoys working on the project because it helps her better understand behavior.
“I’m interested in how neurons control behavior. It’s like trying to understand how a machine works,” said Lawton, comparing herself to someone who like to take machines apart and see how they work on the inside. “But I want to do that with living creatures.”
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