Capturing electrical activity in cortical assembloids

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Excitable cells are essential for life, controlling not only neuronal transmission in the brain but also heart beats and insulin secretion. Despite this importance, the study of cell excitability, especially neuronal, is curbed due to the need to access sophisticated tools that are tedious, require months of training, and are expensive. Multielectrode arrays (MEAs) are a solution. MEAs use multi-well plates (6, 24, 48, 96well) with a grid of tightly spaced electrodes embedded in each well that enables the recording of electrical activity across a population of cells. This approach is high throughput, relatively inexpensive, and easy to use. Here, we request funding to purchase a Maestro Pro MEA that will enable rapid and uncomplicated measurement of neuronal electrical activity across networks, in real time. We are a team of four PIs (two female/two male; two early/one mid/one senior career) that use human brain organoids as a tool to study fundamental neural developmental processes. Our group shares the common need to capture electrical neuronal signatures in human brain organoids. Having access to Maestro Pro MEA is critical to each of our NSERC funded programs and there is no such equipment anywhere on the University of Calgary campus. Additionally, given its ease of use, this MEA will be placed in the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) organoid core, making it widely available to hundreds of HQP, from postdoctoral fellows to undergraduates.