Development of neural network high-throughput screening devices--disease model chip using iPS cell technology-

Tsuneo Urisu

Nagoya University, FIRST Research Center for Innovative Nanobio devices,

Furo-cho, Chikusaku, Nagoya, 646-8603 Japan

Neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are intractable diseases, for which neither of cause and treatment methods are known in spite of more than 100 years of researches. The biggest reason is that the patient’s neurons cannot be sampled in their lifetime. Recently mutated genes of patients are being identified. By transfecting these mutated genes into animals, cloning of disease animal, the model animals, was succeeded．Using these model animals, investigation of origin of the disease and the development of medicines have been actively carried out. However, any successful results have not been obtained. Concerning medicines, although it was effective in the model animals, its effect was small in the human patients. I think that the essential difficulty is contained in the model animal method, where causal genes are excessively transfected into animals which originally have not such a disease. Revolutionary change has been brought into this field by the invention of iPS technology. We can make the neuron or neural networks by the differentiation of iPS cells induced from the skin or blood cells of patients. By this method, we can make thein vitro neural network of the patient him/her self, that is disease model chip, which expresses the disease characteristics. .

We have been, in recent several years, developing noble technology of neural network formation, technology of multichannel ionchannel recording using incubation type planar patch clamp and several imaging technologies such as Ca2+ imaging. And now, we are considering to combining these technologies and iPS technology to originate the disease model chip of ALS. We are now developing several technologies of, chip fabricaton, cell seeding for noble neural network, integrated microfluidic device of multi-ionchannel recordings, data analysis and differentiation of iPS cells in parallel. I will introduce in the lecture about the present stage of our developments.

Tsuneo Urisu

Professor,Dr.

Nagoya University, FIRST Research Center for Innovative Nanobio Devices,

Furo-cho, Chikusaku, Nagoya, 646-8603 Japan

Phone: +81-52-747-6743, Fax.: +81-52-747-6751,

Email:

Personal History

1964~1968 Department of Chemistry, Fuculty of Science, The

Univ. of Tokyo.

1968~1973 Graduated Course, Department of Chemistry, Fuculty of Science, The Univ. of Tokyo.

1973 NTT Basic Research Laboratory

1983 NTT LSI Laboratories

1992 Pofessor,Institute for Molecular Science

2011 Professor Nagoya University, FIRST Research Center for Inoovative

Nanobiodevices.

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THECHINA-JAPANSYMPOSIUM ON NANOMEDICINE

Nanjing, China,October27-29, 2013