Openspritzer

thingiverse

Full MS link: http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/12/13/093633 Open-Labware link: https://open-labware.net/projects/openspritzer/ Openspritzer is a high-performance, low-cost open hardware pressure ejection system for reliably delivering picolitre volumes. Chris J Forman, Hayley Tomes, Buchule Mbobo, Tom Baden, Joseph V Raimondo Reliably and precisely delivering picolitre volumes is crucial to biological research. We introduce Openspritzer, a high-performance open hardware pressure ejection system that can be built from off the shelf components at low cost. When connected via pneumatic tubing to a standard micro-pipette, the device delivers minute doses of reagents to various systems with precision. We characterise Openspritzer's performance and compare it to a popular commercial system using two-photon fluorescence microscopy. Our results show that Openspritzer matches the commercial system in controlling delivered reagent dose. We then demonstrate Openspritzer's utility in standard neurobiological applications. First, we use Openspritzer to deliver precise amounts of glutamate and GABA to hippocampal neurons, eliciting time- and dose-precise excitatory and inhibitory responses respectively. Second, we use Openspritzer to deliver infectious viral and bacterial agents to living tissue. We achieve optogenetic manipulation of hippocampal circuitry with light by transfecting hippocampal interneurons with channelrhodopsin using Openspritzer. We also successfully infect organotypic hippocampal slice cultures with fluorescent Mycobacterium bovis bacilli using Openspritzer. Due to its high performance and low cost, we anticipate that Openspritzer will interest researchers in the life and physical sciences.