Introduction to Translational Peripheral Neuronal Assays and Platforms

Validating compounds in translational assays is vital to progressing your drug discovery program. Metrion offers a range of translational, phenotypic neuronal assays and platforms employing native rodent and human iPSCs from the peripheral nervous system. These assays are useful for determining the efficacy, potency and mechanism-of-action of customer compounds designed to treat diseases such as pain and inflammation.

We mainly focus on electrophysiological readouts, using manual patch (voltage and current clamp) and multi-electrode array (MEA) platforms to record changes in single cell and neuronal network activity, and determine the effects of media, cell biology modulators, signalling pathways and test compounds.

These assays often need to be specifically designed for your translational neuroscience and drug discovery needs, please contact us with your requirements using the buttons below.

Patch-clamp recording

Current-clamp is an information rich technique which allows high fidelity recordings from individual neurons to measure changes in membrane potential and firing behaviour in response to compound application or current input. Recordings can be used to compare firing characteristics from different cell types, verify findings from other sources (such as MEA) and to ascertain the mechanism of action (MOA) of compounds. In addition, we can make voltage clamp recordings of specific voltage- and ligand-gated ion channel currents to confirm the target specificity, selectivity and MoA of test compounds.

At Metrion, we are highly experienced at recording from native rodent neurons and are currently developing further translational assays such as recordings from stem cell derived neurons and human dorsal root ganglion neurons (see action potential data in panel).

Multi-electrode array

Multi-electrode array (MEA) platforms enable simultaneous recording of the physiological activity in multiple peripheral neuronal cells. Metrion offer access to the Axion Maestro MEA platform for use with peripheral neuron preparations. Extracellular field potentials are recorded in a non-invasive manner to characterise neuronal firing before and after compound addition. For example, these techniques can be used to examine cells in sensory pathways, such as rodent dorsal root ganglia neurons, and their response to ligand application. The electrophysiological behaviour of populations of disease-modified neurons or cells from different sources can also be compared with relative ease.

Peripheral Neuronal Firing Resources