🎉 Our latest study is out in Communications Biology!
We show that anti-seizure medications can modulate both electrophysiological activity and information processing performance in a structured, closed-loop neural microphysiological system (DishBrain).
Preclinical models rarely test how drugs affect goal-directed neural behavior.
Using DishBrain, we show how epilepsy-linked hyperactivity in human iPSC neurons affects gameplay — and how compounds like carbamazepine restore function.
Neural cultures played a simplified Pong game.
Without intervention, hyperactive cultures performed poorly.
💊 After carbamazepine:
✅ Longer rallies
✅ Higher hit/miss ratios
✅ Fewer aces
Structured stimulation reveals functional improvement.
Only inhibitory compounds (not all ASMs) improved gameplay.
📉 Spontaneous hyperactivity dropped
📈 Performance during gameplay improved
🧩 Suggesting a link between glutamatergic modulation and goal-directed information processing.
Traditional readouts miss the bigger picture.
By measuring:
bursting states
criticality (DCC, BR, SC error)
dynamic functional connectivity
…we captured richer, drug-specific neural responses that align with known mechanisms.
This shows how DishBrain-like systems could:
go beyond rodent models
reduce reliance on spontaneous activity alone
offer functional assays for epilepsy and beyond
An early proof that SBI systems can support pharmacological discovery.
We used NGN2-reprogrammed iPSC neurons with glutamatergic hyperactivity and tested phenytoin, perampanel, and carbamazepine.
Read the full paper here 👇
📄 Communications Biology
🔗 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08194-6
#Neurotech #SBI #DrugDiscovery #Epilepsy #Organoids #BrainOnAChip #stemcells #bioinformatics #invitromodeling
Brad Watmuff