Brain Slice Electrophysiology

Electrophysiological recordings of acute brain slices, spinal cord slices, and cultured neurons.

Our slice electrophysiology experts have extensive experiences in Patch Clamp and Multi Electrode Array (MEA) recordings, allowing the determination of molecular effects on neurons and/or neuronal networks: 

• Rodent Brain Slices 
• Rodent spinal cord slices 
• Human Brain Slices 
• Organotypic Slice Culture 
• Lysosome recordings (in cultured cells) 

Our recording protocols include:

• Passive membrane properties 
• Active membrane properties 
• Spontaneous firing activities 
• Evoked-responses (electrical or chemical stimulations) 
• Synaptic transmission 
• Short-term plasticity 
• Long-term synaptic plasticity 
• spontaneous synaptic transmission (excitatory or inhibitory): sEPSC or sIPSC 
• miniatures excitatory or inhibitory currents mEPSC or mIPSC 
• Determination of reversal potential values for a dedicated ions (Erev-GABA-A for Chloride,as an example) 
• single channel recordings 

Our protocols allow documenting the profile of agonists, partial agonists, inverse agonists, competitive and non-competitive antagonists, positive or negative allosteric modulators. 

We collaborate with your team to implement protocols tailored to establish pharmacological profile/signatures, target engagement, Mechanism(s) of Action, and safety issues. 

Our slice electrophysiology platform also has a strong background in phenotyping Tg rodent models.

Pharmacology & Therapeutics 

We support clients working therapeutic areas such as: 

• Pain
• Neurodegenerative Diseases
• Neuropsychiatric Disorders
• Epilepsy
• Stroke

Example target classes we cover:

• G-Protein coupled receptors (GPCRs)
• Voltage-gated ion channels
• Metabolic pathways
• Chloride cotransporters

Example drug targets we cover:

• Kainate
• Ampa
• NMDA
• Chloride cotransporters
• Dopamine
• Nicotinic
• GABA
• mGluR
• Muscarinic
• Serotoninergic
• TAAR​

Our techniques & models

Patch Clamp

Neuroservices-Alliance is a world-renowned leader in patch clamp electrophysiology. Patch Clamp allows in vitro evaluation of compounds with the highest cell/molecular resolution. 

Multi Electrode Array (MEA)

Multi Electrode Array (MEA) is a mid-throughput technique enabling parallel and multi-sites extra-cellular recordings within a single brain slice. Multi Electrode Array is the adequate technique to get an exceptional macroscopic view of neuronal networks.

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HD-MEA

HD-MEA allows recording of neuronal networks almost at the cellular levels. Proprietary AI algorithms allow extracting thousands or millions of information with an unprecedent resolution. 

Disease Models

• Pain (acute /chronic) 
  Dedicated assays for pain-killer compounds: spinal cord recordings and discrimination between layers 1-2 and layers 4-5 in the dorsal horn. Based on the MEA technique, we also provide a quick screening assay on capsaicin-evoked firing activity (validated with reference compounds). 
• Epilepsy / Ischemic / OGD (Oxygen-Glucose Deprivation) 
• Stress/Anxiety 

Tg Models

We have a long experience in characterizing genetically-modified rodents (mice or rats) for many neurodegenerative, epileptic  and neuro-muscular diseases. 

Compounds can be evaluated in brain slices or spinal cord slices prepared from commercially available transgenic mice or rats (acute exposure or chronic exposure). 

Recordings can be performed in slices prepared from rats (up to 18 months) or mice (up to 24 months).