Applications

Applications of the BioCAM platform are constantly growing and enable unprecedented functional imaging in networks of electrogenic cells and tissues.

Briefly, the unique capability to spatially and temporally resolve extracellular signals over a large field of view (e.g. 5.12x5.12 mm² with BioChip4096E) makes the BioCAM platform a unique experimental tool to image spiking and field activities in networks of cultured neurons, in acute preparations of brain tissue and other electrogenic cell networks such as cardiac tissue preparations.

Thanks to its small sizes and advanced electronics, you can also integrate the BioCAM platform within your electrophysiology setup and combine this innovative functional imaging technology with perfusion systems and conventional patch-clamp or field electrodes. Furthermore, the superior technology of the BioCAM enables to manage light-induced artifacts for combined use with light imaging methods, photostimulation (e.g. for retina), or optogenetic methods.

Here, you can find same experimental examples acquired by users to help you in better evaluating the BioCAM capabilities. Do not hesitate to contact us to check if we meet your experimental needs that might not be covered here.

Dissociated Neuronal Cultures

What makes the BioCAM platform a unique technology to record network activity in dissociated cultures are i) the high statistical significance in defining firing and bursting network parameters and ii) the capability of imaging and tracking in detail spatiotemporal activity patterns. Dissociated cultures grown on multi-electrode arrays (MEAs) are used to investigate fundamental properties of brain processing, to study functional properties of cultured models of neuropathologies or derived cell-lines and for developing drug-screening or toxicological applications.

The BioCAM platform can foster you R&D on neuronal networks by enabling you to:

• Track network activity and connectivity;
• Improve statistical significance of your network activity parameters;
• Combine our electrode-based imaging with light-based imaging;
• Investigate electrically evoked network responses;
• Assess chemically induced activity changes.

Brain Tissues

The BioCAM platform allows you to map spiking activity and extracellular fields distribution over large brain circuits in acute brain tissue preparations at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions. For instance, you can electrically evoke activity with extracellular field electrodes and map the response propagation within large circuits. Similarly, you can apply plasticity protocols by electrical stimulation to assess altered behaviors in preparations from animals’ models of neuropathologies. Only the BioCAM platform provides you these functional imaging features.

The BioCAM platform can foster you R&D on brain tissue by enabling you to:

• Map chemically/electrically induced activity propagations over multiple circuits;
• Identify chemically/electrically induced functional changes;
• Apply plasticity protocols and reliably assess induced changes.

Acute Retina

The whole retina of a post-natal mouse can be coupled with the active area of our BioChips. This allows you to record either spontaneous or light-induced activity generated by the retinal ganglion cell layer to investigate retinal coding, development or to investigate retinal degeneration under pathological conditions. Thus, you can take advantage of the 4096 recording electrodes to locate and sort the activity of single retinal ganglion cells while, at the same time, observing for the first time the whole network.

The BioCAM platform can foster you R&D on acute retina by enabling you to:

• Map the activity of the entire retinal ganglion cell layer at single cell resolution;
• Record light-induced network activity by combining the BioCAM with light-stimulation devices.