Fig. 3: Design of the NemaFlex-S device for strength measurement of C. elegans.

a An actual image of the NemaFlex-S device with two identical sections NF-A and NF-B, the device is filled with red food dye for better visualization of the salient features. b Image of a gravid adult crawling in the pilar chamber. The zoomed inset image shows the eggs inside the worm. Scale bar, 100 µm. c Design of the individual pillar chamber. The chamber is connected to the flow channel (highlighted with blue arrows) with a tapered neck for trapping the worms and with sieve channels for removing the progenies. d Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of deformable micropillars. Scale bar, 50 µm. e SEM image of sieve channels. Scale bar, 100 µm. f Image of an adult worm trapped in the neck Scale bar, 500 µm. See Supplementary Video for trapping and loading of an adult into the chamber. Images used in this figure were captured at TTU.