Maestro Pro multiwell microelectrode array for the University of Liverpool electrophysiology suite: Cell physiology meets high throughput.

这项提案是为利物浦大学的生命过程和医学科学研究所（ILCAMS）购买一种新设备，这种设备可以比过去更大规模、更快地进行生理记录。我们的要求是什么？*现代生物学的大部分是建立在识别细胞和组织中的大量生物分子及其影响途径的基础上的。由于近年来取得了非凡的突破，现在可以以过去难以想象的惊人速度完成这项工作。例如，单细胞rna测序现在可以在一天内从50,000个单个细胞中识别几乎整个mRNA补体（~活性基因）（可能需要几天的时间来分析数据！）。然而，生物学的一个领域仍然远远落后于生理记录；记录细胞电行为、运动、存活、收缩等方面发生的变化。这些通常由高技能的专家执行，但通常以每天约一个细胞的速度进行；一旦训练完毕，一切就绪。我们需要的是新一代的生理记录设备，它可以识别每天数百个细胞的生理变化。虽然还没有达到单细胞rna测序的速度，但对于我们或英格兰西北部的任何其他实验室来说，这是一个巨大的进步。这个设备能做什么现有设备不能做的？*虽然该仪器将在遗传学、细胞生物学、神经科学、衰老、干细胞等一系列学科中发挥作用，但我们需要强调三个具体方面。(1)现有设备一次只记录一个细胞，或多个细胞聚集在一起记录一次。这是令人痛苦的缓慢。这台新机器允许同时记录几十个细胞，使高通量电和收缩性分析成为可能。(2)作为(1)的扩展，这台机器不仅可以更快地记录单个细胞，而且可以以结构化的方式并行记录，这样就可以实时跟踪网络活动。组织内的细胞不会像特立独行的个体那样我行我素；它们在网络中相互作用，这台机器允许在利物浦首次对这些网络进行分析。该设备可以同时分析网络中几十个细胞的完整性、运动和电学特性，并进行几个并行实验。据我们所知，没有其他机器能做到这一点，在默西塞德郡肯定没有。它将为谁服务？*该机器将成为利物浦大学健康与生命科学学院设施的一部分，我们将在我们自己的生物科学系推广使用；遗传学，组织工程，生理学，药理学等以及默西塞德郡研究机构的当地合作者。最初，申请人将优化方法和使用，但我们的长期愿景是，它将成为几个平行记录生理设备中的第一个，并将在利物浦大学共享研究设施（live - srf）的翼下进行管理，并与其他设施（如GeneMill，细胞成像中心，核磁共振或质谱代谢组学，蛋白质组学和测序）一起提供给所有人（经过培训）。

This proposal is for the Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences (ILCAMS), in the University of Liverpool to purchase a new equipment that can perform physiological recording on a much larger scale, and with greater speed than that which was possible in the past.*What are we requesting?*Much of modern biology is based around identifying large numbers of biomolecules in cells and tissues and the pathways that they influence. Due to extraordinary breakthroughs over recent years this can now be done at astonishing speeds unthinkable in the past. For example single cell RNA-sequencing can now identify almost the entire mRNA complement (~active genes) from 50,000 individual cells in one day (may take a couple of days to analyse the data!). However, one area of biology that is still lagging far behind is physiological recording; recording what changes occur in cell electrical behaviour, movement, survival, contraction etc. These are generally performed by highly skilled experts, but typically at the rate of about one cell per day; once trained and all set up. What we are requesting is a new generation of physiological recording apparatus that can identify physiological changes in hundreds of cells per day. Not up to the speed yet of single cell RNA-sequencing, but a massive advance on what was previously possible for us, or any other labs in the North West of England.*What can this equipment do that existing equipment cannot?*Whilst this apparatus would be useful across a range of disciplines from genetics, cell biology neuroscience, ageing, stem cells etc, there are three specific facets we need to highlight.(1) Existing equipment records only one cell at a time or one recording from many cells all aggregated together. That is painfully slow. This new machine allows for the recording of dozens of cells simultaneously making high throughput electrical and contractility assays possible.(2) As an extension of (1) this machine will allow one to record individual cells not just faster, but in parallel in a structured fashion so that one can track network activity in real time. Cells within tissues do not behave as individual mavericks doing their own thing; they interact in networks and this machine allows these networks to be analysed in Liverpool for the first time. (3) This equipment allows analysis of cell integrity, movement and electrical properties all at the same time across dozens of cells in the network and in several parallel experiments. No other machine we are aware of can do this, certainly none in Merseyside.*Who will it serve?*The machine will be part of a facility within the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Liverpool, and we will promote its use across our own bioscience departments; genetics, tissue engineering, physiology, pharmacology etc and local collaborators in Merseyside research institutes. Initially the applicants will optimise methods and usage, but then our long-term vision is that it will be the first of several parallel recording physiological apparatus and that will be managed under the wing of the University of Liverpool Shared Research Facilities (Liv-SRF) and available to all (following training) alongside other such facilities such as GeneMill, Centre for Cellular Imaging, NMR or MS metabolomics, proteomics and sequencing.