BioCAM System

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APPLICATIONS Large-scale sensing technology for in-vitro electrophysiological imaging BioCAM System Dissociated neuronal cultures Cardiomyocyte cultures Human stem cell-derived neurons Acute brain tissue and explanted retina Disease modeling Drug discovery Long-term and acute toxicity & safety studies LTP/LTD protocols Plasticity & homeostatic studies Spontaneous & evoked activities (spikes, fEPSP) Optogenetics-combined studies Functional/structural connectivity

Transcript of BioCAM System

Page 1: BioCAM System

APPLICATIONS

Large-scale sensing technology for in-vitro electrophysiological imaging

BioCAM System

Dissociated neuronal culturesCardiomyocyte cultures

Human stem cell-derived neuronsAcute brain tissue and explanted retina

Disease modelingDrug discovery

Long-term and acute toxicity & safety studiesLTP/LTD protocols

Plasticity & homeostatic studiesSpontaneous & evoked activities (spikes, fEPSP)

Optogenetics-combined studiesFunctional/structural connectivity

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Top: BioChip with the CMOS at the center, with 4096 sensors on an area of 2.7 x 2.7 mm2. Bottom-Left: a single activity frame from cultured neurons (bar: 200μm). each pixel depicts the level of activity measured at the cells above the corresponding sen-sor (red: high; blue: low). Right: example of the signal recorded by a single sensor over time (bars: 100μV; 50ms).

Tech in a nutshellThe core of 3Brain’s technology is represent-ed by the Microelectrode Array BioChip, an active monolithic CMOS device enabling on-chip amplification and multiplexing, which allows long-term, continuous, and simul-taneous recording of electrophysiological signals from 4096 channels at cellular resolu-tion (20μm) over a large area (up to 5.1 x 5.1 mm2), with a sampling frequency of 18kHz/channel.

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Examples of the quality of the signals acquired from different biological preparations

Tech advantages3Brain’s BioChip is both a synthesis of and a superior replacement for traditional imaging and MEA-based tech-niques, since it combines the visualization of the whole network activity using functional images/videos with the single-trace temporal precision achieved by each electrode. This approach allows:

• brain-on-a-chip, label-free, and non-interfering measurement of the biological sample• long-term (months) and continuous monitoring of cells• reduction of the number of trials thanks to the high statistical significance of the estimated activity parameters• high-sensitivity to small functional changes by simultaneously monitoring thousands of neurons• large-scale sensing ephys-imaging capabilities to observe complex dynamic interactions at the network level• identification of disease-induced altered functional states at an early stage of the condition, providing an

effective time window for testing interventions, such as rescue treatments

SignalsThe sensitivity of the system allows the recording of both fast short signals (≈1ms) and slow oscillations (≈10-200ms). Typical signals consist of:

• spike events from dissociated network and tissue

• local field potentials• excitatory postsynaptic po-

tentials (EPSP)and population spikes from acute brain slices

Biological modelsThe activity of any kind of electrically active preparation can be sensed. These models comprise for example:

• dissociated neuronal or cardiac cultures from rats or mice • human stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte or neurons• acute brain slices, such as cortico-hippocampal or cerebellar slices• explanted tissue, such as retinas

Front page image courtesy of Nets3Lab, IIT, Genova, Italy

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Spatio-temporal propagating patterns in spontaneous (top) and electrically evoked (middle) conditions visualized as sequences of whole network activity maps for a hippocampal culture after 24 days in vitro*. (bottom) Detail of a signal propagation along an axonal bundle of a ganglion retinal cell**.

Raster plot activity (above) and post-stimulus time histogram (below) of retinal ganglion cells (RGC) from a mouse retina model for retinitis pigmentosa (rd1) expressing the light-sensitive cation channel channelrhodopsin2 (ChR2), in response to 2s alternating white (white background) and black (light grey background) full fields. Adapted from [4].

Example of im-proved functional connectivity estima-tion on a dissociated network (right) obtained by refining cross-correlation computed from spike trains (top-left) with topological constraints extracted by immunofluores-cence staining (bot-tom-left). Adapted from [7].

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Investigation of signal processing under sponta-neous and evoked activityBoth the spontaneous and electrically evoked activity of either dissociated networks [1, 2] or brain tissue [3] can be sensed with unprecedent-ed spatial resolution, allowing for the simultane-ous extraction of information at a network level and at the scale of cell-to-cell interactions.

The unprecedented detailed observation of sig-nal processing within large neuronal assemblies opens up incredible opportunities for under-standing mechanisms such as plasticity and homeostasis, which form the basis of complex behavior, such as learning and memory.

Optogenetics3Brain technology can also be combined with optogenetic stimulation tools for spatiotemporally precise excitation/inhibition of cells, as in the case of [4], where optogenetics was successfully used in a study on retinitis pigmentosa.

Connectivity studies Functional connectivity in neuronal assemblies is a hot topic for neuroscientists. 3Brain’s large sensing technology allows fine studies of interconnected networks [5, 6] and, combined with optical imaging, provides a powerful tool to investigate the relationship between function and structure in cultures [7, 5].

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[1] Y Yada et al. Syst Neurosci, 2016[2] A Maccione et al. SFN Conference, 2012[3] A Maccione et al. J Physiol, 2014

[4] J Barrett et al. Sci Rep, 2016[5] A Maccione et al. J Neurosci Methods, 2012[6] V Pastore et al. Front Neuroinform, 2016

[7] S Ullo et al. Front Neuroanat, 2014* Courtesy of L Berdondini, IIT, Italy** Courtesy of E. Sernagor and G. Hilgen, ION, UK

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Human stem cell-derived neuronal networksHuman stem cell technology is the most promising tool to improve brain disease in-vitro modeling. This approach has been already fully validated on 3Brain’s CMOS BioChip. Spontaneous, as well as electrically stimulated, activ-ity has been monitored for more than three months to evaluate functional network maturation by using different adhesion protocols [1].

Disease in a dishSevere and chronic diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, require the identification of functional impair-ment markers to test the rescue effect of compounds at an early stage, possibly before irreversible cellular death.

In [2], an Alzheimer’s in-vitro model was presented, combining dissociated cultures grown on a BioChip and in-sulted with Aß amyloid at a very low concentration (0.1µM), not inducing cell death. Significant electrical activity alterations were monitored for more than 24 hours.

Distribution of the neuronal activity (firing profile) measured with a BioChip at different days in vitro for two adhesion fac-tors used to seed cells. Profiles differ, with the red one diverging with time from physiological behavior. Adapted from [1].

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Firing frequency

LTP on CA1 dendritic region induced by high-frequency stimulation (HFS) delivered in the CA3 area. Upper row: field EPSP (left) is po-tentiated after HFS (right). Lower row: no potentiation of EPSP after HFS occurs when the slice is perfused with D-AP5, an NMDA receptor antagonist. Biochip’s sensor grid is visible on the background of slices*.

fEPSP in control solution

fEPSP in control solution

LTP in control solution

LTP in 50μM D-AP5

Safety, toxicology, and mecha-nism of actionBioChips have superior performance in brain toxicity stud-ies, for example with long-term potentiation (LTP) proto-cols, which are routinely used to evaluate potential memory deficit induced by compounds [3].

3Brain technology also allows the user to study circuitry and neuronal assembly communication at a micro-scale level, which is of great interest to those seeking an under¬stand-ing of the potential targets of molecules, for example in the field of epilepsy [4].

Cardiac drug safety screening is a mandatory step in drug development; BioChips have already been tested with car-diac tissue. Parameters such as contractile period, spike am-plitude, duration, and propagation velocity can be extracted to characterize toxicological effects.

[1] H Amin et al. Front Neurosci, 2016[2] H Amin et al. 9th FENS Meeting, 2014[3] S Zordan et al. SFN Meeting, 2016

[4] E Ferrea et al. Front Neural Circuits, 2012[5] A Simi et al. 9th FENS Meeting, 2014[6] A Mescola et al. Langmuir, 2016

* Courtesy of Aptuit Verona, Italy

Further innovative BioChip uses BioChip can be used in many other contexts, for example in studying progenitors’ integration in cell cultures [5], per-forming real-time closed-loop experiments, or characteriz-ing specific chemical functionalization of the electrode-neu-ron interface [6]. To discuss further possibilities, contact our team of Application Specialists on 3brain.com.