Objective The main objective of the proposal is to develop a new easy-to-use tool for in-vitro screening of neurotoxic agents, based on changes/disappearance of electrophysiological activity in acute brain slices and organotypic slice cultures as a consequence of their exposure to neurotoxic agents. The proposal will take advantage of silicon technology by developing a micromachined multi-electrode array to be functionally coupled to brain slices and organotypic slice cultures. Thus allowing multi-site measurements repeatable in time. The ease of use of the new tool should rely on the design of an optimised measurement micro-chamber for acute brain slices and organotypic brain slices. The core of the microchambe1 will be the array of micro-electrode on which biological samples will lay. This recording /stimulating array will form the bottom of the micro-chamber. The micro-chamber should guarantee the best possible approximation to physiological conditions (Cf. "Central Nervous System Slice Preparations", 3rd Int. Conf., June 1994, J. of Neurosci. Methods, 59, 1, 1995). Appropriate software / hardware tools will be developed to optimise multi-site recording/stimulation of the electrophysiological signals and their processing in order to "translate" them into a highly reproducible neurotoxicology screening test. The development and use of the new array - based micro-chamber will be paralleled during the proposal by histological, biochemical and standard electrophysiology tests. Measurable objectives to be achieved in the design of the chambers are: 1) biocompatibility of all the materials in contact with the live neural cell cultures, 2) chemical stability of chosen materials in saline and culture media, 3) automated multi-site recording and stimulation and 4) ease of handling. The global measurable objective is to provide the European Community with a new tool for in-vitro electrophysiological tests which will reduce animal experiments and become an improved alternative to other time-consuming and expensive in-vitro experiments. The performances of the micro-chamber will be validated by testing a set of known neurotoxic agents. Fields of science natural sciencesbiological sciencesneurobiologynatural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftwarenatural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrymetalloids Programme(s) FP4-BIOTECH 2 - Specific research, technological development and demonstration programme in the field of biotechnology, 1994-1998 Topic(s) 070102 - In vitro tests for neuro-pharmaco-toxicology Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinator Università degli Studi di Genova EU contribution No data Address 11 A,Via Opera Pia 11/A 16145 Genova Italy See on map Total cost No data Participants (6) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all BIO-LOGIC Instruments S.A. France EU contribution No data Address 1,Rue de L'Europe 38640 Claix See on map Total cost No data UNIVERSITE DE NEUCHATEL Switzerland EU contribution No data Address 1,Rue A.-L. Brequet 2 2000 NEUCHATEL See on map Total cost No data UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN Denmark EU contribution No data Address 3 C,Panum Institute - Blegdamsvej 3 C 2200 KOEPENHAGEN See on map Total cost No data UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN DENMARK - UNIVERSITY OF ODENSE Denmark EU contribution No data Address 19,Winslíwparken 21 5000 ODENSE See on map Total cost No data Università degli Studi di Genova Italy EU contribution No data Address Via de Toni 5 16132 Genova See on map Total cost No data Westfälische Wilhelms - Universität Münster Germany EU contribution No data Address 27A,Robert-Koch-Strasse 48149 Münster See on map Total cost No data
