Manipulation of motile Paramecium cells using galvanotaxis

Abstract

We propose a system for control of a motile cell using an applied electric field exploiting the galvanotaxis of Paramecium sp. Although the galvanotaxis of the Paramecium is well studied, a large-scale microsystem that can produce arbitrary patterns has not yet been realized. Here, we characterize the response of the cells to different voltage levels. We also examine the accumulation time to determine its response rate. The programmable controller developed in this study may be utilized in the future to generate on-demand patterns.