Direct imaging of aligned neurofilament networks assembled using in situ dialysis in microchannels

We report a technique to produce aligned neurofilament networks for direct imaging and diffraction studies using in situ dialysis in a microfluidic device. The alignment is achieved by assembling neurofilaments from protein subunits confined within microchannels. Resulting network structure was probed by polarized optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy, which confirmed a high degree of protein alignment inside the microchannels. This technique can be expanded to facilitate structural studies of a wide range of filamentous proteins and their hierarchical assemblies under varying assembly conditions.