MD Biosciences performs high throughput and medium throughput cell based assays using neural tissues derived from animals, iPS-derived stem cells, neuronal cells, cardiomyocytes, PBMCs, and neural micro-tissues that closely mimic the human brain.
There are many advantages to cell based assays, which are now gaining regulatory acceptance as part of the preclinical package for drug development. Cell based assays are cost and time effective, and are an advantageous model for high throughput screening, safety and efficacy. The results are highly reproducible and relevant to the clinic, especially when derived from human cells. All of our assays provide valuable insights on mode of action and can be used to evaluate therapeutics for diseases that are difficult to model in animals, like Alzheimer's.
Cell-based Assays:
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Neurodegeneration Screening Assay
This screening assay utilizes primary neurons from rodents, and is ideal for identifying mode of action and screening compounds prior to in vivo efficacy studies. Following the conditioning phase, cultures are treated with compounds and evaluated for their neurodegeneration index.
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Synaptic Imaging Assays
The synaptic imaging assay is a powerful model that evaluates the effect of treatments on synapse formation and identification. The primary readouts of this assay are the inhibitory and excitatory synapse ratio and synaptic strength.
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Neurite Outgrowth
The neurite outgrowth assay examines the effects of drug candidates on neuronal activity and development. Primary cultures of the nervous system are treated with test compounds to assess the effect on neurite outgrowth or inhibition, which is measured by the length and area.
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iPSC Reprogramming Assays
The iPSC reprogramming assays utilize induced pluripotent stem cells and are powerful assays for in vitro drug screening and target validation.
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RealBrain® Micro-Tissue Brain Models
RealBrain® provides high modeling accuracy of traditional organoids, but with far greater ease of production, reproducibility and optical clarity. These 3D models capture the complexity of the human brain by differentiating neural stem cells in an advanced chemically-defined polymer matrix that are compatible with 96 or 384-well plate formats.