Ace Therapeutics provides cell co-culture models for the study of the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders, as well as analytical services based on these models. Our goal is to provide suitable in vitro models to elucidate the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders and to develop new therapies.

Introduction of Cell Co-Culture Development for Psychiatric Disorders

Mental disorders are among the diseases with the highest burden of disease, ranking fifth in the global causes of disability. Recent advances in genetics, molecular biology, and stem cell biology have accelerated our understanding of neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD), and schizophrenia (SZ).

Psychiatric disorders involve multiple cell types in the central nervous system, and in vitro co-culture is essential to sort out the impact of these cells on the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders. Compared to monocultures, co-cultures offer a higher level of complexity and can better represent the human brain. Thus, co-cultures can more accurately represent the complexity of neuropsychiatric disease pathogenesis in specific human model systems.

Fig. 1 Rational design of schizophrenia models. (Abashkin DA, et al., 2021)

Cell Co-Culture Development Services

Ace Therapeutics offers stem cell-based co-culture model development services to expand the scope of your research, drug discovery or drug screening program. We typically use primary cells and embryonic stem cells (ESC) or iPSC-derived cells to establish co-cultures of multiple cell types. Co-culture of multiple cell types with a variety of iPSC-derived neural and glial (non-neuronal) cells can elucidate autonomic and non-autonomic cellular responses to neuropsychiatric disease pathology.

We can also co-culture by hPSC targeted differentiation, direct reprogramming, or obtaining your target cell type of interest from primary tissue samples. This can help you explore non-cell-autonomous interactions and specific molecular pathways in neuropsychiatric diseases of interest. We can also establish complex multilayer co-cultures, such as triple cultures of neurons, astrocytes, and microglia, for the study of neuroinflammatory responses.

In addition, we help you explore the genetic basis of these complex diseases by using CRISPR-Cas9 in neuropsychiatric disease modeling to better understand the function of genetic loci associated with the disease.

What Can We Help You Achieve in Psychiatry?

• Our co-culture model can be used to examine the interactions of different brain cell types (e.g. neurons, astrocytes, and microglia) in the same culture.
• Our co-culture model allows the study of cell-cell interactions between various cell types related to psychiatric disorders as well as cellular responses to drug compounds.
• Our co-culture model can improve your understanding of cellular interactions in complex neuropsychiatric disorders and specific disease pathologies.
• Our co-culture model helps you study cell-autonomous phenotypes and non-cell-autonomous interactions.

Advantages of Our Co-culture Model

• Allows exploration of non-cell-autonomous contributions to disease pathology
• Allows examination of contact-dependent and contact-independent cellular interactions
• Suited for large-scale experiments and allows for high-throughput drug screening

Why Choose Us?

• Free consulting services
• Genealogy-defining cell lines identified by genealogy-specific markers
• High-purity cell lines
• Non-integrated differentiation programs
• Co-culture models with multiple lineages can be developed
• Technical support of the cell maintenance after delivery
• Fast turnaround and tailored to your needs
• Competitive pricing

Ace Therapeutics' co-culture models can improve your understanding of the cellular interrelationships of complex neuropsychiatric disorders and specific disease pathologies. To learn more about our affordable custom cell modeling services, make an inquiry today.

Reference

1. Abashkin DA, Kurishev AO, Karpov DS, Golimbet VE. Cellular Models in Schizophrenia Research. Int J Mol Sci. 2021, 22(16):8518.