Central nervous system (CNS) safety remains a major challenge in drug development, with neurotoxicity and functional liabilities often emerging late in the drug discovery pipeline. Human-relevant in vitro CNS models can help identify these risks earlier, enabling more predictive neurotoxicity screening and functional assessment before the costly preclinical and clinical stages.
Many early CNS safety workflows still rely on 2D neuronal cultures, which fail to capture the spatial organization, cellular interactions, and network behaviour of the human brain, limiting their predictive value. Human neural microtissues are 3D neural spheroids that better replicate the architecture, cell-cell interactions, and functional neuronal network activity of brain tissue than conventional 2D in vitro cultures.
By combining long-term compound exposure with functional endpoints such as calcium imaging and electrophysiology, they enable more reliable neurotoxicity screening and earlier identification of potential CNS safety liabilities.
However, building these models in-house is resource-intensive, time-consuming, and difficult to standardize for high-throughput screening. InSphero’s 3D InSight™ Human Neural Microtissues address these challenges with ready-to-use, human iPSC-derived cortical neural spheroids for scalable, human-relevant CNS safety assessment with reliable functional readouts.
Bring predictive CNS safety testing in-house with InSphero’s 3D InSight™ Human Neural Microtissues – without the time, cost, and complexity of building 3D models yourself. These assay-ready, human iPSC-derived 3D cortical neural spheroids enable scalable neurotoxicity screening with reliable, functional readouts to support confident decision-making in earlier drug discovery timelines.
With scheduled production runs every 4–6 weeks, you can order 3D InSight™ Neural Microtissue to align with your timelines and plan upcoming neurotoxicity screening campaigns.
iPSC-derived human co-culture model of astrocytes with glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons mimicking in vivo-like neural networks, enabling more reliable functional readouts for neurotoxicity and CNS safety assessment.
Choose from two predefined neuron–astrocyte ratios and cell number formats, providing flexibility to align the model with your specific drug discovery needs.
With up to 8 weeks of viability and functionality, enabling long-term treatment and capturing functional readouts through calcium imaging or electrophysiology.
Receive assay-ready 3D neural microtissues in Akura™ 96 & Akura™ 384 well plate format, allowing you to begin scalable screening immediately without model development complexity.
Generate actionable CNS safety insights with fully characterized, validated 3D InSight™ Neural Microtissues, a human-relevant 3D cortical spheroid model you can trust to support faster, more confident decision-making.
Work with a human-relevant 3D neural model that includes major neural cell types. 3D InSight™ Neural Microtissues are iPS-derived human 3D cortical spheroid models that are a triple-culture of differentiated astrocytes, glutamatergic (excitatory) and GABAergic (inhibitory) neurons.
With our capability to tune the neuron–astrocyte ratio during spheroid aggregation, you can choose between a balanced (50% neurons, 50% astrocytes) or a neuron-rich model (90% neurons, 10% astrocytes) for your targeted toxicity screening needs.
Figure: Histological staining of 3D InSight™ Human Neural Microtissues, showing the presence of astrocytes, neurons, and synaptic structures within the model.
Generate reliable, structural readouts for CNS risk assessment using high-content imaging. 3D human neural microtissues develop complex, in vivo-like morphology. Confocal imaging confirms the formation of neuronal networks with dense synaptic structures and organized co-culture integration of neurons and astrocytes.
Figure: Confocal imaging of 3D neural microtissues highlights physiologically relevant neural architecture and synaptic network formation
With up to 8 weeks of viability, morphology and sustained functionality, you gain a practical assay window of up to 4 weeks after delivery, allowing long-term compound exposure to better reflect clinical dosing and detect critical CNS risks earlier.
Figure: Plate scan of an Akura™ 96 Spheroid Microplate containing pre-aggregated neural microtissues, with the corresponding diameter heatmap showing size distribution across the plate. Diameter and ATP measurements over time illustrate long-term viability during extended culture.
Evaluate the impact of your drug candidates on synchronous calcium oscillations. Quality control with established tool compounds confirms expected modulation of neuronal activity – giving you confidence that the model reliably detects drug-induced functional effects.
Figure: Calcium imaging traces following treatment with established tool compounds demonstrate predictable modulation of spontaneous network activity in 3D InSight™ Human Neural Microtissues.
Go beyond calcium imaging and gain deeper insights into how your drug candidates affect neuronal network behavior. Combined with MaxWell Biosystems‘ HD-MEA technology, 3D InSight™ Human Neural Microtissues enable high-resolution, label-free electrophysiological recordings to detect changes in firing patterns, network bursting, and synchrony upon drug treatment.
From increased firing frequency and burst stabilization to complete network silencing, these functional readouts help identify potential CNS liabilities and support mechanism-of-action studies.
Figure: Representative HD-MEA network activity profiles of 3D InSight™ Human Neural Microtissues before and after pharmacological modulation with reference compounds.
Once you place your order, our expert team initiates spheroid aggregation and maturation, followed by rigorous quality control. With regular availability (every 4 to 6 weeks) of assay-ready 3D InSight™ Neural Microtissue, helping you to plan your program with confidence. Check our production schedule.
With up to 8 weeks of viability and stable functionality after aggregation, you benefit from a flexible assay window of up to 4 weeks upon delivery– giving you the time needed to perform neurotoxicity studies, including long-term drug treatment. Microtissues are easily maintained using your own media with our supplements.
Select your preferred 3D InSight™ Neural Microtissue configuration and submit your order
Our experts generate your neural microtissues based on your configuration
Each batch undergoes rigorous QC, including functional validation and is shipped
Receive your 3D neural microtissues and start testing and generating data
Each microtissue is a triple-culture model containing iPS-derived differentiated astrocytes, Glutamatergic (excitatory) neurons, and GABAergic (inhibitory) neurons.
Yes. 3D InSight™ Human Neural Microtissues remain viable and functionally active for up to 8 weeks after aggregation, providing an assay window of up to 4 weeks upon delivery. This enables long-term compound exposure studies designed to better reflect clinical dosing regimens.
The microtissues are designed for a wide range of applications, including CNS safety assessment, neurotoxicity screening, functional pharmacology, long-term drug treatment studies and mechanism-of-action investigations.
Calcium imaging in neural microtissues measures changes in intracellular calcium as a functional readout of synchronous neuronal activity, making it well suited for scalable screening. MEA studies directly record electrical activity, providing deeper insights into firing patterns, bursting behavior, network connectivity, and mechanism of action.
The balanced model contains 50% neurons and 50% astrocytes, reflecting cortical glia-to-neuron proportions. The model is suited for applications such as general neurotoxicity screening, neurodegenerative disease modeling, metabolic profiling, or neuroinflammation studies.
The neuron-rich model contains 90% neurons and 10% astrocytes and is suited for studies that require astrocyte-dominance avoidance and a better signal-to-noise ratio for functional assays.
The microtissues are supplied assay-ready as one spheroid per well and are available in: Akura™ 96- and 384-well Spheroid Microplates or standard round-bottom 96- and 384-well plates.
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