Multiwell-Screen
Software for online, real-time activity overview in all wells. Explore, select, stimulate, and record relevant data with predefined sets for neuronal or cardiac experiments.
Controlling the Experiment
Experiments with the Multiwell-MEA-System are performed using Multiwell-Screen software which was specifically designed for medium to high throughput screening experiments. The flexibility of the experiment setup options supports a multitude of experimental paradigms.
After the experiment is set up, execution is easy: The software handles data recording, electrical stimulation and online data analysis while visualizing the acquired data and the analysis results.
Thanks to automatic report generation at the end of the experiment with several export options for the data and the analysis results, Multiwell-Screen provides you with a fully integrated and streamlined solution for running MEA screening experiments with cardiac or neuronal cells.
Experiment Setup
To set up the experiment, specify a set of experimental conditions (e.g. different compounds for drug screening) and assign wells to each condition. Different experiment phases can then be defined for each experimental condition – for drug screening, this may be a dilution series of the applied compound. The software supports both cumulative and non-cumulative dosing protocols. The duration of the phases will usually be controlled by a timer but may be set up for manual control as well.
Sampling rates between 1 and 50 kHz may be used for the recording, offering a trade-off between maximum data fidelity and file size. For noise suppression, spectral filters can be configured directly in the software.
Electrical Stimulation
The built-in electrical stimulator is fully controlled by the software for seamless integration in the experiment protocol. It supports voltage- and current-controlled stimulation protocols with an easy to use configuration interface for pulsed stimulation. More complex stimulation protocols can be imported from text files.
Stimulation electrodes for monopolar or bipolar stimulation can be selected individually for each well and different stimulation timing can be set up for different phases in the experiment.
Optical Stimulation
Optical stimulation with the external LED Stimulators can be configured and executed from within Multiwell-Screen. LEDs can be enabled on a per-well basis, and the length, amplitude and number of repeats of the stimulation pulses can be configured for each LED type. For the 24 well stimulator, up to 3 different LEDs can be active for each well. Different stimulation timing is possible for each experiment phase.
Temperature Control
The heating element of the Multiwell-MEA device is fully software controlled. A live view of its temperature and the ability to change it is available throughout the experiment.
Online Data Analysis
Multiwell-Screen comes with a set of analysis tools and visualizations which are specialized for either neuronal or cardiac signals. These built-in algorithms are adjustable to your data, offering you the freedom to adapt them to each well individually for optimal detections.
The analysis results extracted from each well are used to compute dose-response curves for more than 15 parameters. These may be displayed for raw and normalized data in 6 different display styles such as mean with error bars or as box plots.
Data Visualizations
The Multiwell-Screen software is designed to give you an overview of the total behavior of all cultures on the plate while simultaneously allowing you to focus on individual channels in detail. The position of all displays in the software can be adjusted freely to your needs.
If you are recording neuronal data, the software shows detected spike cutouts, spike bursts and network bursts. If stimulation is used, the PSTH display computes peri-stimulus time histograms and raster plots. For cardiac data, fast sodium peak detections, averaged action potentials and detected field potential durations are shown.
Replayer
Multiwell-Screen has a replayer functionality that allows you to load previously recorded Multiwell-MEA recordings and replay them in the software.
Reporting and Exports
After each experiment, a PDF report is created by the software containing details about the experimental conditions, the analysis results and the computed dose-response curves. The individual analysis results as well as all display contents may be exported to text files for convenient import into other software.
Sample Report Neuro
Sample Report Cardio
Want To Do a Test Drive?
Multiwell-Screen is free to use. Check out the replayer mode using our demo data.