We’re kicking off the month right, featuring five days dedicated to the revolutionary model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans—or more plainly, worms!
This tiny worm, with its simple genetics and diminutive nervous system, has helped us to understand numerous aspects of human development, behavior, aging and disease.
Each day, we’ll highlight a handful of recent JoVE video articles involving worms. You can keep up with the highlights by following us on one of our social media pages. These include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.
Today we will feature one of our most recently published worm videos, a protocol from Harvard Medical School used to explore antipsychotic drugs.
Later in the afternoon, we’ll share a protocol for studying chemotaxis with worms. This technique from Queens University measures the worms’ responses to certain targets or odorants. “Many organisms use chemotaxis to seek out food sources, avoid noxious substances, and find mates,” the authors write, “[But] Caenorhabditis elegans has impressive chemotaxis behavior.”
First, however, we’ll start with something more basic: a video from our Science Education database that introduces C. elegans research, discussing the history and applications of worms in the field.
Would you like to recommend a C. elegans JoVE video for Worm Week? Paste a short description and link in the comment box below.
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