BEL is rooted in Engineering and Physics and is performing interdisciplinary research and education relevant to biology and medicine. Our group has longstanding experience in the development of CMOS-technology-based (external pageCMOScall_made: Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor), integratedchemical and biomicrosystems, as well as bioelectronics and microelectrode arrays. Moreover, we are engaged in the development of microfluidics for investigating the characteristics of single cells and microtissues.
Synchronized combination of atomic force microscopy, high-density microelectrode array, and fluorescence microscopy developed. System can mechanically characterize and stimulate individual neurons at picoNewton force sensitivity and nanometer precision while monitoring electrophysiological activity at sub-cellular spatial and millisecond temporal resolution.
New 2D human-derived cell-culture model developed and electrophysiologically characterized, which led to discovery of new protein, neuronal pentraxin 2 (NPTX2), playing an important role in neurodegenerative diseases amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar dementia (FTLS).
Newly developed machine-learning-assisted platform DeePhys enables phenotypic electrophysiological screenings at the cellular and network level, identification of reliable features to classify healthy and mutant neuron lines, and comprehensive evaluation of pharmacological interventions.