MultiElectrode Array (MEA) Electrophysiology System for the NINDS Neuro Therapeutics Development Unit (NTDU) and Neural Differentiation Unit (NDU)

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), conducting research into the causes, treatment, and prevention of neurological disorders and stroke. The NINDS mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.

The NINDS Neuro Therapeutics Development Unit (NTDU) and the Neural Differentiation Unit provide a resource for investigators at NINDS and other NIH Institutes to develop neuroprotective and neuroregenerative therapeutics entities. A significant part of this work includes development of cell based assays to identify, evaluate and characterize potential agents as possible treatments for neurological disorders. Our platform requires the generation of human induced pluripotent stem cell derived neuronal cultures for evaluation, characterization and quantitation of the protective actions of new and novel neurotherapeutic strategies. To assess the functionality of these human cultures derived from both normal control and patients with neurologic diseases, electrophysiologic measurements are appropriate parameters to validate the cultures. We plan to generate Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) and neural stem cells (NSC) from normal controls and patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and assess the morphologic and electrophysiologic properties of the stem cell derived neuronal cultures. This may help delineate the neurobiologic properties of CFS and their molecular function as a prerequisite to