System and method for metabolyte neuronal network analysis

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method for testing the neuronal effects of a compound and its metabolites. The system (100) includes a microelectrode array (102), a data capture unit (108) communicably coupled to the microelectrode array (104), a processor (110) communicably coupled to the data capture unit (108) and one or more input/output devices (112) communicably coupled to the processor (110). The microelectrode array (102) is capable of supporting genetically modified neuronal cells (104) and measuring neuronal activity. The testing medium containing the compound and the metabolites is extracted from hepatocyte cells (106). The method (400) determines the effects of the metabolites of a sample compound on neuronal cells by exposing a sample compound to hepatocyte cells (406), extracting medium from the exposed cells (408) and exposing the extracted medium to neuronal cells on a microelectrode array (410). The effects of a sample compound and its metabolites versus the effects of a sample compound alone can be determined from a comparison of the data (406).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.