👁️ Before the eyes even open, the retina is already “talking” to the brain. But what happens in neurodevelopmental disorders with visual impairment? In a new Frontiers in Neuroscience paper (@FrontNeurosci), Gupta et al. investigate how loss of Ube3a, the gene underlying Angelman syndrome, affects spontaneous retinal activity during early development, a particularly interesting question given the visual abnormalities commonly associated with the disorder. Before vision is fully established, developing retinas generate retinal waves, coordinated bursts of neuronal activity that travel across the tissue and help guide the wiring of the visual system. Using the MaxOne High-Density Microelectrode Array (HD-MEA) System, the team recorded 32 ex vivo retinas from wild-type (WT) and Angelman-model mouse pups. Angelman-model retinas showed reduced retinal wave frequency and lower overall RGC activity, indicating less patterned activity during this critical developmental period. But what about the waves that did occur? They were largely normal: wave propagation speed, duration, area, shape, local synchrony, and distance-dependent functional connectivity were comparable to WT controls. This suggests that Ube3a deficiency primarily disrupts the initiation of retinal waves rather than their ability to propagate across the retinal network. This is a nice example of how the spatial and temporal resolution of MaxOne can move beyond detecting “more or less activity” and reveal which specific property of a developing neural circuit is altered in disease. 👉 Read the full publication here – mxwbio.com/resources/frontie… 👏 Congratulations to Rishikesh Kumar Gupta, Alexander J. Fisch, Fernanda S. Orsi, and Alexandre Tiriac from Vanderbilt University (@VanderbiltU) and Vanderbilt University Medical Center (@VUMCDiscoveries) 🇺🇸 #HDMEA #Retina #Neurodevelopment #DiseaseModeling #Neuroscience Supplementary Video S1 from Gupta et al., Frontiers in Neuroscience (2026). DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2026.1895084. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

🚀 High content electrophysiology: from Earth to orbit. We are excited to announce a new partnership between MaxWell Biosystems (@mxwbio) and Exobiosphere (@exobiosphere), bringing high-content electrophysiology to automated drug screening in microgravity. By integrating our high-density microelectrode array (HD-MEA) technology into Exobiosphere’s Orbital High-Throughput Screener (OHTS), the collaboration aims to enable the functional characterization of neuronal and cardiac cells directly in orbit. Why does this matter? Microgravity offers a unique environment to investigate biological processes and drug responses. Adding high-content electrophysiology means going beyond observing how cells change in space to measuring how their function changes and how they respond to compounds. The combination of automated screening and HD-MEA technology opens exciting opportunities to generate richer, functional insights for disease modeling and therapeutic discovery in microgravity. We were delighted to share this next step together at NeuMoS 2026, and we are looking forward to seeing where this collaboration takes us. 🌍🛰️ 👉 Read the full press release: mxwbio.com/updates/maxwell-b… #MaxWellBiosystems #Exobiosphere #Microgravity #Electrophysiology #LifeSciences #SpaceResearch

🖐️🔥 Can engineered skin “feel” when it is touched, warmed, or cooled? And how those inputs are translated into electrical activity? In a new Advanced Science (Wiley's @AdvPortfolio) paper, Bellantoni et al. present an innervated full-thickness human skin equivalent that turns physical stimuli into measurable neuronal responses. The model combines a differentiated human epidermis and dermis with Schwann cells and sensory neurons forming free nerve ending-like structures throughout the tissue. Rather than evaluating sensory activation only through molecular or optical readouts, they interfaced the tissue with MaxWell Biosystems' MaxOne High-Density Microelectrode Array (HD-MEA) System to directly measure its electrical responses while applying physical stimuli. And the skin responds. Repeated mechanical indentation triggered increases in firing rate that became smaller with repeated touches, a potential signature of sensory adaptation. Thermal stimulation also modulated neuronal activity, with both warming and cooling producing a particularly clear increase in firing. But can MaxOne distinguish mechanical from thermal stimuli? The authors found distinct electrical signatures in spike waveforms for mechanical versus thermal stimulation, demonstrating that the engineered tissue can encode information about stimulus modality. This is a fascinating step toward experimentally controllable models of human somatosensation, with MaxOne at the functional interface between an engineered sensory tissue and the physical world. 👉 Read the full publication here – mxwbio.com/resources/advance… 👏 Congratulations to Daniele Bellantoni, Costantino Casale, Marika Sperduti, Nevio Luigi Tagliamonte, Giorgia Imparato, Loredana Zollo, and Paolo Netti from Università degli Studidi Napoli Federico II, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (@IITalk), and Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma #HDMEA #SensoryNeurons #Bioengineering #Somatosensation #Neuroengineering

👁️ Exploring retinal function together! We are excited to join Helsinki Vision 2026 – Visual Neuroscience in Health and Disease. 📍 Helsinki, Finland 📅 September 16–18, 2026 At MaxWell Biosystems, we are helping researchers uncover new insights into retinal function with high-density microelectrode array (HD-MEA) technology. With MaxOne, retinal explants can be investigated at high spatial and temporal resolution—from capturing retinal ganglion cell activity across the tissue to resolving signals at the single-cell and subcellular level, investigating axonal signal propagation, and characterizing responses to controlled light stimulation. 👋 Make sure to stop by our booth and meet Dr. Elisa Toscano, Field Application Scientist at MaxWell Biosystems! Whether you are working with retinal explants, investigating visual circuits, or curious about what HD-MEA technology could bring to your research, Elisa will be there to discuss your applications and show you MaxOne in action. 🔬 And there’s more on September 17! Don’t miss our Technology Spotlight during the Hands-On Workshop, followed by the opportunity to experience the technology firsthand at our dedicated demo station. We are also delighted to have Dr. Annalisa Bucci, MaxOne user and recent Swiss OphthAWARD 2026 winner, participating in the workshop and bringing a researcher’s perspective on the technology. Looking forward to connecting with the vision research community in Helsinki! 👁️⚡ #Retina #VisionResearch #Electrophysiology #HDMEA #Neuroscience #MxWConnect

🧠 Do you remember neurons playing Pong? Was getting better at it simply a matter of becoming “more connected”? In a new Communications Biology paper (@NaturePortfolio and @SpringerNature), Khajehnejad et al. introduce TAVRNN, a graph-based machine-learning framework that tracks how neuronal activity and functional connectivity reorganize over time, and how this relates to behaviour. The framework was validated on three electrophysiological datasets: rat hippocampus during navigation, primate somatosensory cortex during reaching, and DishBrain, where living neuronal networks interact with Pong through closed-loop stimulation. The authors revisited the original DishBrain dataset, recorded using the MaxOne High-Density Microelectrode Array (HD-MEA) System: 24 cultures and 437 Pong Gameplay and Rest sessions. Did neural connectivity simply increase during Gameplay? Conventional connectivity metrics could distinguish Gameplay from Rest, but were not sufficient to separate the best from the worst-performing Gameplay periods. So, what changed during better Gameplay? TAVRNN revealed that during high performance, sensory- and motor-associated channels became increasingly organized into structured functional clusters. During poorer performance, this organization was weaker and less clearly defined. In other words, successful behaviour was associated not simply with “more connectivity”, but with dynamic and coordinated sensory–motor network organization over time. 👉 Read the full publication here – mxwbio.com/resources/communi… 👏 Congratulations to Moein Khajehnejad, Forough Habibollahi, Ahmad Khajehnejad, Chris French, Brett J. Kagan, and Adeel Razi from the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, @MonashUni, @CorticalLabs , @UBC, @MelbourneOf, @ucl, and CIFAR on this work published in Communications Biology, part of @NaturePortfolio and @SpringerNature.

🧠 Bringing next-generation functional insights to human neural models. From iPSC-derived neurons to increasingly complex organoids and assembloids, advanced human neural models are opening new possibilities for studying development, disease, and therapeutic response. Understanding their functional organization and network dynamics is key to unlocking their full potential. At the 14th GSCN Conference in Berlin, our Field Application Scientist Dr. Elisa Toscano will showcase how high-density microelectrode array (HD-MEA) technology enables high-resolution functional characterization of human neural organoids and assembloids. 📌 Poster #53 “Next-Generation Electrophysiology for Functional Characterization of Human Neural Organoids and Assembloids” 📅 September 9 | 16:30–18:30 📍 Attending GSCN 2026? Stop by Elisa’s poster or connect with her throughout the conference, September 9–11. Looking forward to connecting with the stem cell and organoid community in Berlin! 🧠⚡ #GSCN2026 #Organoids #Neuroscience #HDMEA #MxWConnect

🧠 From axon guidance and synapse formation to circuit function: how do neuronal connections give rise to coordinated network activity? MaxWell Biosystems is joining the 15th Molecular Mechanisms of Neuronal Connectivity meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, bringing together researchers exploring how neural connections form, develop, adapt, and regenerate. 📍 September 8–11 | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY ⚡ Interested in following neuronal activity and connectivity in unprecedented detail? Our Dr. Carlos Sanchez Priego and Dr. @Fraser_mccready will be there to discuss how high-density microelectrode array (HD-MEA) technology can add a functional dimension to the study of neuronal connectivity, from mapping activity across neural networks to investigating axonal propagation and circuit dynamics at high spatial and temporal resolution. We look forward to connecting with the neuronal connectivity community at #CSHL! #cshlneurocon #Neuroscience #Electrophysiology #HDMEA #MxWConnect

Keep your organoid stable during recording, and ready for what comes next. For acute organoid recordings, reliable positioning over the electrodes is key to capturing functional activity, while keeping sample handling as gentle as possible. The MaxOne Organoid Holder uses a membrane-based design to gently keep the organoid positioned on the MaxOne+ HD-MEA Chip array area throughout recording, minimizing perturbation to the sample. And the experiment does not have to end when the recording does. The organoid can be recovered afterward for follow-up experiments, further characterization, or complementary analyses, helping you to get more insights from every sample. 🔹 Gentle, reliable positioning during acute recordings. 🔹 Minimal perturbation to the sample. 🔹 Recover your organoid for what comes next. Record the function. Preserve the sample. Continue the story. 👉 Discover the MaxOne Organoid Holder: mxwbio.com/products/maxone#M… #Organoids #Electrophysiology #HDMEA #Neuroscience #3DModels

🧠 How do we translate the increasing complexity of human neural models into meaningful functional insights? At the 29th Annual Meeting of the Korean Society for Brain and Neural Sciences (K-Brain 2026), our team will showcase how high-density microelectrode arrays (HD-MEAs) can help bridge this gap, from characterizing the functional dynamics of human neural organoids and assembloids to uncovering network and axonal dysfunction in iPSC-based disease models. 📍 Meet Dr. Carole-Anne Vollette and Dr. Marián Hruška-Plocháň  and don’t miss their poster presentations: 🔹 Dr. Carole-Anne Vollette | Field / Technical Application Scientist “Next-Generation Electrophysiology for Functional Characterization of Human Neural Organoids and Assembloids”, exploring how high-density electrophysiology can provide a deeper view into the functional organization and network dynamics of complex 3D neural models. 🔹 Dr. Marián Hruška-Plocháň | Scientific Business Developer “Unveiling iPSC FTD Model Network and Axonal Dysfunction with High-Density Microelectrode Arrays”, showing how HD-MEAs can reveal functional phenotypes across multiple scales in iPSC-derived models of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), connecting network-level alterations with axonal dysfunction. See you in Daejeon! 🇰🇷🧠⚡ #KBrain2026 #KSBNS2026 #Neuroscience #HDMEA #MxWConnect

🏆 Congratulations to Dr. Annalisa Bucci on receiving the Swiss OphthAWARD 2026! Dr. Bucci received the award in the “Best Experimental Work” category for her research on how the human retina synchronizes visual signals to create a seamless visual experience, published in Nature Neuroscience. Her work reveals the remarkable timing precision of visual pathways in the human fovea, showing that the retina does much more than simply transmit visual information: it actively helps synchronize signals before they reach the brain. By combining electrophysiology, anatomical modeling, imaging, and human psychophysics, the study uncovered how differences in axon structure and conduction velocity compensate for different signal travel distances across the fovea. We are especially proud to see our HD-MEA technology contributing to this outstanding work and to celebrate the achievements of researchers in the MaxWell Biosystems community. 🧠⚡ 👏 Congratulations, Annalisa, and to all researchers involved in this remarkable research! 🔗 Curious to discover how the human retina achieves such precise synchronization? Explore the publication: mxwbio.com/resources/nature-… #HDMEA #Neuroscience #Retina #Electrophysiology #Ophthalmology

From stem cells to functional neuronal networks: learning by doing. 🧠⚡ We were delighted to contribute to the Hands-on Course on Human Stem Cell-Derived Neuronal Networks in Health & Disease, organized by the Medical Neuroscience Department at @radboudumc in Nijmegen. Over eight intensive days, participants explored how human iPSC-derived neuronal models can be used to investigate network development in health and disease, combining theory with hands-on training in neuronal differentiation, disease modeling, and functional phenotyping, including high-density microelectrode array (HD-MEA) recordings. Our own Head of Applications, Dr. Praveena Manogaran, joined the course to support the hands-on training, guiding participants through HD-MEA experiments using the MaxTwo system and sharing her expertise in functional characterization of neuronal networks. We are always excited to contribute to initiatives that bring advanced technologies directly into the hands of early-career researchers. Connecting human cellular models with functional network readouts can open new perspectives on complex biology and help advance human-relevant approaches to neuroscience. A big thank you to Dr. Dirk Schubert, Prof. Nael Nadif Kasri, Dr. Marina Hommersom, and the entire Radboudumc team for putting together such a multidisciplinary and practical program, and for having us be part of it! 🙌 #Neuroscience #HDMEA #DiseaseModeling #Neurodevelopment #InVitroModels #iPSC

🧠 Have you ever found yourself surrounded by different MEA platforms and wondering how to analyze all that data in the same way? In a new Bioinformatics paper, Avila et al. introduce CASCADE, an open-source Python pipeline designed to standardize downstream analysis of spike data generated by different MEA platforms. CASCADE uses platform-specific loaders to convert exported spike data into a common internal structure, enabling the same computational workflow across datasets and a reproducible pathway across MEA providers. Alongside conventional metrics, it adds functional connectivity, spatial entropy, neuronal avalanches, and criticality analysis. What about MaxWell Biosystems ".h5" data? Already covered. CASCADE directly supports MaxWell recordings, which the authors used to benchmark the workflow on a human brain organoid dataset acquired with the MaxOne High-Density Microelectrode Array (HD-MEA) System. The CASCADE output was also cross-checked against MaxLab Live Scope as part of the validation (Figure 1). A nice step toward more interoperable, reproducible, and reusable MEA data analysis across laboratories and platforms. 👉 Read the full publication here – mxwbio.com/resources/bioinfo… 👏 Congratulations to Forbes Avila, Jin Kim, Jong-Chan Park, Rian Kang, Hyunsu Lee, and Sun-Hyun Park from the Korea Institute of Toxicology (KIT), University of Science and Technology (UST), Soonchunhyang University, @SKKUni1398 (SKKU), Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, and @PusanUni

Pharmacology needs more than a detectable response. It needs data you can trust and scale. When working with complex neuronal models, robust and reproducible functional readouts are essential to confidently distinguish compound effects from biological variability. In this study using @InSphero 3D InSight™ Human Neural Microtissues, high-density electrophysiology revealed: 🔹 Consistent functional activity across independent samples 🔹 Robust, high-amplitude action potentials captured across different time scales 🔹 Distinct electrophysiological responses to kainic acid, 4-AP, isoguvacine, and TTX Together, these results show how HD-MEA recordings can combine reproducibility with the sensitivity needed to characterize compound-specific effects in complex 3D neuronal models. With multi-well formats and automation-ready workflows, MaxTwo extends this approach to studies ranging from pharmacological validation and compound-response profiling to longitudinal and chronic compound testing. Data obtained in collaboration with @InSphero. 👉 Explore these data and more pharmacology & toxicology case studies: mxwbio.com/applications/phar… #Pharmacology #Toxicology #DrugDiscovery #Spheroids #Neuroscience #HDMEA

Cardiac dysfunction does not have a single signature. It can appear as an irregular beating pattern, changes in field potential, or altered electrical conduction across the tissue. Using high-density electrophysiology we can capture different functional phenotypes: 🔹 Rhythm: reveal changes in beat timing, regularity and spatial activation associated with disease. 🔹 Field potential: quantify changes in field potential duration in response to pharmacological treatment. 🔹 Conduction: map electrical propagation across cardiomyocyte cultures and measure compound-induced changes in conduction velocity. Together, these readouts provide a more comprehensive view of cardiac function across disease modeling, drug discovery, and cardiotoxicity assessment. 👉 Explore the case studies: mxwbio.com/applications/card… #CardiacResearch #Cardiotoxicity #DrugDiscovery #DiseaseModeling #Electrophysiology #HDMEA

🧠 Precious organoids deserve a controlled placement workflow. When placing an organoid onto an HD-MEA, having extra support for precise positioning can make the workflow even smoother. That’s where the MaxOne Organoid Placement Tool comes in. The tool creates a temporary well above the MaxOne+ HD-MEA Chip sensor array area, giving you greater flexibility in the amount of medium used to transfer and position your organoid. Once the organoid is in place, excess medium can be safely aspirated from outside the frame, without disturbing the sample or touching the chip. And it doesn’t stop at placement. The same accessory also supports the application of the Liquid Holder, helping create a smooth workflow from organoid positioning to acute recording. 🔹 More flexible organoid transfer. 🔹 Safe removal of excess medium. 🔹 Controlled and confident positioning. 🔹 Smoother transition from placement to recording. Less handling. More control. More confidence in every placement. 👉 Discover the MaxOne Organoid Placement Tool: mxwbio.com/products/maxone#M… #Organoids #Electrophysiology #HDMEA #Neuroscience #3DModels

🧠 One MaxOne dataset, two connected papers: what happens to action potentials as they travel along axons? In a new Biophysical Journal paper (@BiophysicalSoc and @ElsevierConnect), Cohen and Marom used the MaxOne High-Density Microelectrode Array System and MaxWell Biosystems’ unique AxonTracking Assay in MaxLab Live to analyze 431 axonal branches from 248 neurons across 14 primary cortical networks. They found that action potentials typically slow by approximately 30% along the axon. Surprisingly, the distribution of this slowdown remained stable across branches of different lengths. And they did not stop there: Marom dug even deeper into the richness of the MaxOne dataset. Building on these findings, his second paper in Biophysical Reports (@BiophysicalSoc and @CellPressNews) proposes a bounded multiplicative framework to explain how local geometric and kinetic effects can produce progressive slowdown without increasing variability along longer axons. Together, the papers show how high-resolution MaxOne data can reveal subtle axonal dynamics and provide the experimental foundation for subsequent computational modeling. We wouldn’t be surprised if yet another paper came out of this dataset. 👉 Check out the experimental study here: mxwbio.com/resources/biophys… 👉 And see how the story continues in the theoretical follow-up: mxwbio.com/resources/biophys… 👏Congratulations to Laurie D. Cohen and Shimon Marom from @TechnionLive - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. #MaxOne #HDMEA #AxonTracking #AxonalExcitability #Electrophysiology #ComputationalModeling #Biophysics

What can Microphysiological Systems (MPS) add to our understanding of neural function? In the brain, architecture matters. How neurons are arranged, connected, and embedded in their environment shapes the activity patterns a circuit can generate, and ultimately how information can be processed. MPS offer new ways to investigate this relationship in vitro. From self-organizing organoids to engineered, compartmentalized neural networks, these models allow researchers to explore how structure, connectivity, and function come together. In our latest Focus on Neurocomputing blog, we explore: 🔷 How network structure and topology shape neural function; 🔷 How MPS can provide greater control over connectivity and signal flow; 🔷 Why HD-MEAs are particularly well suited to observing and interacting with structured neural networks; 🔷 How these systems are already being applied to investigate learning, biological computing, and disease. As neural models become increasingly sophisticated, the question is no longer only “what activity can we record?”, but it can also become “what can we learn by controlling how the network is built?” Understanding neural activity is one part of the picture. Understanding how architecture gives rise to function could reveal another. 🧠 Explore the full perspective in our latest blog: mxwbio.com/updates/microphys… #Neurocomputing #MicrophysiologicalSystems #HDMEA #Neuroscience #Biocomputing