DEVELOPMENT OF A HIGH-THROUGHPUT, AUTOMATIC MULTIELECTRODE ARRAY (MEA) PLATFORM FOR IN-VITRO EXTRACELLULAR ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY
01/30/2020
Krisztián Szucher1, Ferenc Hernáth1, Tamás Kurics1, András Bencsik1, Attila Szücs1, István Ulbert1, Julia Zach1, András Czirok1, Katalin Schlett1, László Grand1
In-vitro Multielectrode Array (MEA) technology is widely used for various applications in the neuroscience and cardiac electrophysiology research domains. Single- and multimodal studies have proven its effectiveness in understanding single cell and network level correlates of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived neuronal and cardiomyocyte cultures. Additionally, primary cultures, tissue slices, organotypic slice cultures and organoids are ideal candidates for control or stimulation (electrical, optogenetic and/or chemical) triggered studies. Current MEA solutions offer various options for low throughput data recording and stimulation. With these systems data analysis is usually manual, tedious and subjective. Our aim is to build a platform for high throughput recording, stimulation and automatic signal processing. The prototype platform that consists of hardware and software components developed by our team demonstrated its effectiveness in recording action potentials of hundreds of primary hippocampal neurons at given developmental stages. We have also successfully demonstrated the pharmacological manipulation of neuronal activities. This work is the first milestone of a project, which goal is to deliver a high-throughput platform for more precise and faster studies carried out by researchers in academic or industrial settings. This work was primarily financed by venture capitalists, Creative Accelerator Ltd, FastVentures and Futurmed Ltd. Testing related work was completed by the National Brain Research Program (2017-1.2.1-NKP-2017-00002) and by the ELTE Institutional Excellence Program supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH-1157-8/2019-DT).