Fully high-throughput-compatible neuronal compartmentalization and co-culture microfluidic platform

On September 25th 2020 eNUVIO was pleased to introduce the latest microfabricated tool for neuronal compartmentalization and co-culture experiments: the OMEGA-96. Today, eNUVIO officially announced the launch of this unique product, making the OMEGA-96 the very first device of its kind.

Modelled on the success of its predecessor, the smaller OMEGA-4 device, the company quickly realized the potential of a high-throughput screening-compatible version of this versatile neuronal microfluidic platform. Due to their unique design and fabrication capabilities, eNUVIO is able to create microfluidic devices with structural features that have very high aspect ratios. This means that only 2 wells are needed per experimental unit as opposed to 4 wells in the case of similar products. This effectively doubles the number of experiments that can be performed per plate.

The OMEGA-96 fully conforms with 96-well microplate standards enabling researchers to conduct 48 individual experiments in parallel on a single plate while fully taking advantage of existing automated drug screening infrastructure such as plate hotels, liquid handlers and high content screening systems. The company anticipates this groundbreaking tool will greatly impact the success and efficiency of drug discovery and safety toxicology in neurological research areas, particularly in the field of neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases.

The OMEGA series is specifically designed to recreate the natural polarity of neurons as they exist in the nervous system. In its most basic application, the device is used to isolate somatic from axonal compartments of neurons thereby offering researchers a basic experimental platform with increased physiological relevance. The multiple parallel microchannels that serve to fluidically isolate each adjoined well pair are large enough to allow neurites or axons to project across into the adjacent well but not the neuronal cell bodies (i.e. somas). Consequently, toxic protein aggregate uptake and transport assays as well as neurotoxicity assays are a breeze to set up and interpret. Used as a co-culture device, the OMEGA-96 is an ideal platform to study neurodegenerative diseases, the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), the nigrostriatal pathway, pain pathways, as well as neuronal chemotaxis. The unique open-top well design allows researchers to have direct access to their cultures and can accommodate tissue explants as well as self-assembled 3D cultures (e.g. organoids or spheroids). Maintaining healthy cultures over long periods of time has also never been easier, owing to the unique evaporation-minimizing tracks built into the edge of each OMEGA-96 plate. The microplates are available and shipped ready to go: they are sterile, pre-coated and bonded to high-transmissive glass to ensure microscopy compatibility and superior imaging quality.

The OMEGA-96 is the company's newest innovation and allows researchers around the world to access the cost-effective, cutting-edge microfluidic technology. Serving academic and government laboratories as well as CROs, biotech and pharmaceutical companies, eNUVIO’s innovations are accelerating and facilitating life science research and drug screening in the field of neuroscience so that effective treatments for neurological diseases and disorders can be developed more quickly and efficiently.

OMEGA-96 Specifications

• 2 wells per experiment - double the number of experiments per plate compared to classical compartmentalization designs
• 48 well-pairs per microplate = 48 individual experiments per plate
• Microplate structure material: Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), biologically inert
• Microplate outer dimensions: 127.7 x 85.4 mm
• Microplate height (w/o lid): 14.2 mm
• Well surface area: ~0.35 cm2
• Well dimensions (L x W x H): 7 x 6 x 13 mm
• Well volume: 300 µl
• Microchannel width: 10 µm
• Microchannels/well-pair: 70
• Microchannel length: 640 µm
• Microplate glass bottom thickness: 500 µm
• Shipped sterile, pre-coated with poly-D-lysine or poly-L-ornithine
• In-house production ensures high quality at all times
• Sold directly through enuvio.com or via scienceexchange.com

"This development opens the door to more physiologically relevant assays for drug discovery and screening and makes microfluidics-based neuronal compartmentalization and co-culture experiments more affordable than ever before. We are also creating additional types of microfluidics microplates, which will be available in the near future, to easily include long-lasting 3D muscle cultures.", explains Hugo McGuire, CEO and co-founder of eNUVIO, Montreal, Canada.

Learn more about OMEGA-96

About eNUVIO Inc.

eNUVIO creates cutting-edge lab-on-a-chip technologies for life science research. Co-founded in 2016 by Hugo McGuire (CEO; PhD physics), Mark Aurousseau (CSO; PhD pharmacology), and Élise Faure (COO; PhD physiology), eNUVIO operates at the interface of physics, engineering and life science and is committed to providing researchers with next-generation technologies to facilitate and accelerate scientific discovery. eNUVIO’s ready-to-go and customized products are designed to provide physiological relevance to experimentation, increase data output, reduce waste and cater to the needs and workflows of life science researchers. eNUVIO has developed a variety of first-in-class sophisticated microfabricated devices for medium- to high-throughput drug screening applications that include a series of neuronal compartmentalization devices as well as 3D cell culture and electrophysiology devices. All their products are designed, fabricated and manufactured in-house at their headquarters in Montreal, Canada.