Thursday October 5 @ 4 pm CEST (10 am EDT)
Join our webinar to learn about:
- Cellectricon’s technology platform for phenotypic screening in CNS drug discovery.
- Development of functional assays for screening of small molecule- and siRNA libraries with improved translation to the clinic.
- Combining and coupling functional and morphological readouts.
Speaker:
Paul Karila, VP of Discovery Services, Cellectricon
Registration for this event is now closed. Contact us to learn more.
Abstract:
At Cellectricon, we work collaboratively with our clients to establish models with higher translational value while maintaining the high capacity of more reductionist in vitro models. Our approach is to devise and develop assays where the native configuration of the target and the associated signaling machinery is authentic, using freshly dissected tissue from rodent CNS or by using human iPSC-derived neurons.
In appropriate in vitro culture conditions, primary and hIPSC-derived neurons form functional synaptic networks that mature over several weeks in the cell culturing plates. We use such model systems to develop functional assays where we can assess drug effects on multiple parameters such as neuronal excitability, synaptic communication, and network morphology. The resulting validated assays have a high capacity, enabling screening campaigns of either small molecule or siRNA libraries, with the aim to identify both new targets and compounds acting via novel mechanisms in e.g. neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases.
To increase the disease relevance of the assays, the healthy control cell cultures can be replaced by material from patients with either well-characterized disease etiology or from patients with identified, specific mutations. This can be performed in isolation or in combination with induction of disease phenotypes in vitro, as for example with epilepsy models where a chemical is used to induce the appropriate phenotype e.g. increased excitability. Measuring functional aspects can also be coupled to morphological readouts such as neurite outgrowth and spine morphology using high content imaging (HCA) as a way to understand if, for example, disease progression can be modelled in a dish.
In this webinar, we will present examples of above assays and concepts with the ambition that the participant will learn more about our technology platform, the development of functional assays with improved translation to the clinic, and different strategies of employing such assays in drug discovery and early development.
Presented by:
Paul Karila, PhD, VP of Discovery Services, Cellectricon
Paul is responsible for building and providing discovery services at Cellectricon’s labs in Mölndal, Sweden employing excitable native and stem cell models. Paul joined Cellectricon from AstraZeneca (AZ) where he held leadership positions at the Departments of Molecular Pharmacology and Neuroscience. Paul led teams responsible for ion channel and GPCR profiling in LI-LO phase, mainly on analgesia targets. Prior to joining AZ, Paul was a Postdoctoral Fellow at School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA studying neurobiology using electrophysiological methods. Paul earned his PhD at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden in 1997.