Nerve cells, also known as neurons are the fundamental units of the brain and nervous system, responsible for receiving and transmitting information throughout the body. Rich with multiple neuronal cell types and varied glial cells, neural tissue has historically been difficult to model in vitro [1]. Such modelling challenges greatly slow our progress in understanding and treating neurodegenerative disease. Fortunately, this is changing with recent advances in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology.
bit.bio’s deterministic cell programming technology (known as opti-ox™) enables the rapid conversion of entire cultures of stem cells into a precise cell identity with unprecedented consistency. The rapid gain of functionality of bit.bio’s human nerve cells empower researchers to build the types of physiologically relevant in vitro models needed to drive research into neurodegenerative disease and neuropsychiatric disorders, and the data-backed lot-to-lot consistency enables standardisation across assays used in early stages of drug discovery, from target identification to clinical translation.
Dive into this application note, to discover how ioGlutamatergic Neurons and iPSC-derived astrocytes have been used in 3D microtissues, to build a powerful model system for medium- to high-throughput drug screening and more productive preclinical drug development.
1. Pereira I, Lopez-Martinez MJ, Samitier J. (2023) Advances in current in vitro models on neurodegenerative diseases. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1260397.