Human derived cortical excitatory neurospheroids showed spontaneous activity on micro electrodes array

Human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) with their differentiation protocols, constitute a potential tool to investigate the various biological mechanisms of different human cells, such as those of the central nervous system. With the advent of such technique, we have increased the knowledge of biological mechanisms of neural diseases and, new therapies are now emerging. In particular, three-dimensional (3D) neural cell culture models including brain organoids and neurospheroids are increasingly used as in vitro platforms for studying human brain cell biology and drug screening, in genome engineering and transplantation as potential treatment for some neurodegenerative diseases. In this work, we exploited a particular differentiation protocol to generate engineered excitatory cortical neurospheroids of human origin. To assess functional network activity, we used standard Micro Electrodes Arrays (60 channels) and for the first time CMOS based devices (4096 channels). Sample cultures showed electrophysiological activity in 4 weeks and these first results suggest future possible applications for drug screening and transplantation.