CardioExcyte 96 System for Pharmacology Research at Northwestern University

The objective of this proposal is to enhance the capability of investigators at Northwestern University to investigate the electrophysiological, contractile, and pharmacological properties of cultured cardiomyocytes. This objective will be achieved by the purchase and installation of a CardioExcyte 96 system manufactured by Nanion Technologies. The system is a screening platform enabling reliable, label-free measurements of short- and long-term compound effects for drug safety screening, contractility assays, and functional investigations of electrical activity of cultured cardiomyocytes. This hybrid instrument combines measurement of cell monolayer impedance, which correlates with cell contractility, with extracellular field potential (EFP) recordings generated by cellular action potentials. The CardioExcyte 96 is a fully automated device, recording from 96 wells at a time. The system will be configured with an incubation system to maintain physiological temperature, automated pipetting station for reproducible cell seeding and compound handling, and a 96-well optical stimulation module for noninvasive optogenetic pacing of cardiomyocytes. A powerful and user-friendly software drives operation of the instrument, performs data acquisition and analysis.