Periodic Reporting for period 1 - In-Cytes (IN-CYTES A HIGH-DENSITY MICROELECTRODE ARRAY PLATFORM FOR LARGE-SCALE INTRACELLULAR FUNCTIONAL ASSAYS) Reporting period: 2019-10-15 to 2021-01-14 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project More than one billion people worldwide suffer from diseases of the central nervous system. Treating brain diseases costs annually € 1.4T in EU and US . Despite efforts and increasing budgets dedicated by multinational pharmaceutical companies for developing new drugs to cure diseases of the nervous system, brain drugs are 45% less likely to succeed and progress than non-brain drugs. There is a widening gap between the increasing demand for brain therapeutics and the decreasing success rate of new drug.Neurons connect and communicate by electrical signals. Neural connectivity is altered through brain diseases (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease, Schizophrenia, Autism, etc.). In order to accurately measure neural connectivity, it is necessary to access neurons’ intracellular electrical signals.The overall objectives of In-Cytes project include the development of a prototype in vitro electrophysiology platform providing a connectivity bioassay.In-Cytes assay aims to reliably recording intracellular electrical signals from thousands of neurons, in order to assess drug effects on neuronal connectivity in human brain disease models, in vitro. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far "One of the main goal of the In-Cytes project was to train the Innovation Associate, in order to enable her to transition from an academic environment focusing on basic research to a business environment.The Innovation associate was trained in an industrial R&D environment, including project management aspects and product applications (from cell cultures on MEA sensors to data analysis). The innovation associate was also involved in customer support and satisfaction. The innovation associate partitcaped to marketing events and successfully collaborated with industrial biotechnology partners, which lead to creation of application protocols.The Innovation became a key employee at the hosting company for internal product development and to interface customers, therefore she was hired by a permanent position as ""Application Scientist"".Importantly, the Innovation associated developed prototype assay enabling live identification of single-neurons and targeted electrical stimulation, enabling access to intracellular signals." Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far) In-Cytes project enabled MaxWell Biosystem to explore the technical parameters required for single-neuron electrical stimulation, in order to develop the first high-throughput drug screening platform for recording intracellular electrical signals in neural networks. In-Cytes assay aims to be used in combination with human induced pluripotent stem cell technology, enabling drug screenings in human neurons modeling brain disease and reducing the use of animal models in preclinical drug discovery. In-Cytes assay will provide novel high-content electrophysiological parameters, which in turn will shorten the time to identify efficacious and safe drug for brain diseases. In-Cytes Concept
