線蟲 (Caenorhabditis elegans)，居住在溫和環境裡，是神經退化疾病的一個獨特的模型系统，例如:老年痴呆症(Alzheimer's Disease)和帕金森病(Parkinson's Disease)。線蟲為當前研究提供幾點好處： (1)生長週期短，(2)低成本，(3)透明和容易觀察，(4)基因序列已經被解碼。神經疾病可能是由於神經细胞的上細胞骨架軟硬的變化。原子力量顯微鏡(AFM)是觀察對象的一個新穎的技術與在分子上有高解析度。此外，顯微鏡能直接測量樣品的交互作用力量和探針的交互作用力。 所以，原子力學被用來辨認在技巧和神經细胞表面之間的互作用力量在各種各樣的神經毒性治療。線蟲(C. elegans)生長在NGM培養皿， 等到蟲生長到L4之後(已懷孕的蟲)再做細胞分離(Cell isolation)的步驟。之後將細胞置於已經Coating好的Dish上，等到神經细胞生長出來，再使用AFM來掃描細胞表面，並且量測其交互作用力。這個研究的目的是觀察神經细胞表面，未來運用在神經毒性治療或以已知的神經疾病上。

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