Translational Medicine Cell Culture
Primary Neuronal Cultures
& Human iPSC-Derived Neurons
At Ulysses Neuroscience Ltd., our Translational Medicine Department operates dedicated cell culture suites equipped for primary postnatal rodent neurons and human iPSC-derived neurons. Our facility integrates confocal microscopy, Sartorius IncuCyte live-cell imaging, and downstream biomarker analysis using our in-house Luminex, MSD, and Li-Cor Odyssey platforms — ensuring data continuity with our preclinical and clinical studies.
Who will find this platform useful?
- Pharma & biotech developing neuropsychiatric or neurodegenerative drugs
- Psychedelic developers targeting glutamatergic or serotonergic pathways.
Postnatal Primary Neuronal Culture
Origins: Cortical and/or hippocampal neurons from P0 rat pups.
Cell culture schedule
Why Postnatal Primary Neuronal?
Our neuronal cultures are derived from postnatal day 0 rodents, aligning with the 3Rs principles:
- Ethically Refined: Postnatal collection avoids maternal sacrifice and animal distress.
- Scientifically Relevant: Postnatal neurons better replicate mature CNS receptor profiles.
Receptor expression advantages over embryonic cultures:
- Glutamate receptors: Higher NR2A-containing NMDA receptor expression and mature AMPA subunits (GluA1/GluA2) vs embryonic GluA4 dominance.
- Monoamine receptors: Robust 5-HT2A and dopamine D1 expression for cortical circuit modelling.
- Other receptors: Enhanced GABA-B, adrenergic, cholinergic, and cannabinoid receptor expression.
Primary Neuronal Culture
Applications & Endpoints
- Morphometric analysis: Sholl analysis and PSD-95 puncta for dendritic branching, and spine maturation.
- Synaptic markers: PSD-95, synaptophysin, SV2A, spinophilin.
- Cytoskeletal dynamics: α-tubulin PTMs (acetylation, tyrosination/detyrosination).
- Secreted biomarkers: BDNF, Nf-L/Nf-H, cytokines, clusterin.
- Live functional imaging: IncuCyte® calcium flux.
- Custom assay developmenttailored to client specifications.
Sholl Analysis: MAP2 staining (dendritic marker) and FIJI/ImageJ for analysis of dendritic crossings
PSD-95 puncta: PSD-95 and MAP2 double staining for quantification of dendritic spines
Odyssey CLx analysis of Cell Culture Lysates
Psychedelics Research
Neuroplastogen Screening
Fully licensed for Schedule I compounds, Ulysses offers a validated Neuroplastogen Screening Platform adopted by global clients for dose–response neuroplasticity studies with psychedelics and neuroplastogen compounds.
Standard package includes:
- Dendritic morphology (Sholl analysis).
- Synaptic density (PSD-95 puncta).
- Secreted BDNF quantification in cell media.
- Cytoskeletal plasticity markers (acetylated α-tubulin) in cell lysates.
Human iPSCs-Derived Neuronal Models
With extensive expertise in human iPSCs neuroscience, we deliver fully validated, disease-relevant neuronal models to accelerate translational research from molecular mechanisms to clinical application.
Differentiation platforms:
- Dual-SMAD inhibition – glutamatergic/excitatory neurons and more.
- Doxycycline-inducible cassettes – excitatory, dopaminergic, motor, sensory, inhibitory subtypes.
In-house available lines:
- Control: 6 validated control lines.
- Parkinson’s disease: 5 prodromal (anosmic) and 5 full PD lines (Michael J. Fox Foundation).
- CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder: 2 mutant lines (CURE5).
On-request lines:ALS/FTD (TDP43, SOD-1, FUS, C9ORF72), AD (TREM2, APOE 4/4, APP, PSEN1), PD (PRKN, PINK1, SNCA), HD (HTT), DMD (Δ Exon 44
Why Use Human iPSC-Derived Neurons?
- Genetic fidelity– Cells retain the donor’s genotype, allowing direct modelling of sporadic and familial disease mechanisms.
- Unlimited supply – Self-renewing iPSC lines can be differentiated repeatedly, ensuring consistency across experiments and projects.
- Cell type specificity – Differentiation into excitatory, inhibitory, dopaminergic, motor, or sensory neurons for pathway-specific studies.
- Clinical translation – Results generated in human neurons improve the predictive power for clinical efficacy and safety.
- Rare disease access – Enables modelling of conditions where patient CNS tissue is not accessible.
Human iPSC-Derived Neurons
Applications & Endpoints
- Live functional imaging: IncuCyte® calcium flux.
- Morphometric & synaptic marker analysis.
- Biomarker analysis from media and lysates.
- Custom assay development tailored to client specifications.
Culture Media and Synaptosome Biomarkers in 6-week aged iPSC-derived neurons. Cells were treated with vehicle or ketamine (3 or 10 µM) 24 h pre-harvest. BDNF was analysed by U-PLEX MSD plates. Synaptosomes were analysed using the Odyssey Infrared Western Blot System.
Why Partner with Ulysses
- All key imaging, biomarker, and culture platforms in one facility.
- Proven expertise in neuroplasticity and psychedelics research.
- Seamless integration with preclinical and clinical biomarker workflows.
- Unique disease-relevant iPSC lines (PD, CDKL5, controls).
- Experienced neuroscientists guiding study design and analysis.
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