MEA-Plated Cortical Network (Priced Line by Line)
Human iPSC-derived cortical neurons plated with glia onto a multielectrode array and matured to recordable network activity, costed from a published academic core rate card.
| Category | Neural Cultures & Electrode Interfaces |
|---|---|
| Unit | One multielectrode array plate delivered with a plated, matured, recordable neuronal network |
| Lead time | 6-12 weeks from order, dominated by the neuronal differentiation age specified and the post-plating maturation period, not by shipping |
| Pricing | Published list price |
| Provenance | Partner manufactured |
| Data current | 2026-09-03 |
Description
Between a frozen vial of neurons and a firing network sit four to eight weeks of coating, plating density optimisation, glial support and feeding, and that interval is where neurotech projects die. Commercial vendors price the vial and price the instrument and price nothing in between, which makes the whole middle of the workflow invisible until a group has already committed to it. One institution breaks that silence completely. The Boston Children's Hospital IDDRC Human Neuron Unit publishes a fully itemised fee schedule in three customer tiers covering every line of the workflow separately: the neurons at a stated differentiation age, the MEA plate, the plating reagents, the plating labour banded by plate count, the glia supplied for plating, the media changing reagents and labour per week, the recording, and the data analysis. Nothing else we have found in this category is anywhere near this legible. It means a buyer can construct a defensible bottom-up cost for a plated, matured, recorded cortical network before speaking to anyone, and can then hold a commercial quote against it line by line. Two structural facts fall out of the card and both are useful. First, the glia line does not vary by customer tier at all, internal, external academic and external industry pay the same for glia for plating, while every other line carries a 1.30x academic multiplier on cells and roughly 1.70x on services, which tells you the glia are a pass-through cost rather than a service. Second, the recording itself is trivially cheap relative to getting to the recording. This offering brokers the plated network as an object rather than as a capability, with the maturation risk moved onto a party who does this routinely.
Why this is hard to buy today
The recording is the cheapest line in the whole workflow and the four-to-eight-week maturation before it is the most expensive, and no commercial vendor prices the maturation at all. The only itemised schedule we have found anywhere is an academic core's rate card, which restricts its two cheapest neuronal lines to non-industry customers outright, so a company cannot buy the option that makes the arithmetic work and has no published figure to negotiate a commercial equivalent against.
Price evidence
Boston Children's Hospital IDDRC Human Neuron Unit published fee schedule, captured live 2026-09-01, in three customer tiers stated as internal BCH / external academic / external industry, all USD. Cells: NGN2 cortical neurons at 3 weeks, one batch equalling two 10 cm dishes, $1,796 / $2,334 / not offered to industry; NGN2 cortical neurons at 2 weeks $1,537 / $1,998 / N/A; monolayer cortical neurons at 10 weeks $2,229 / $2,898 / $3,788; access to a control iPSC line, per line, $382 / $497 / $650. Plating: MEA plate, 1 plate, $400 / $420 / $495; MEA plating reagents for one 48-well plate $128 / $167 / $218; MEA plating labour, 1-3 plates, $208 / $271 / $354 (4-6 plates $416 / $541 / $708; 7-10 plates $624 / $812 / $1,061); MEA glia for plating, 1-3 plates, $625 / $625 / $625, identical across all three tiers. Maintenance: MEA media changing reagents, per plate for one week, $156 / $203 / $266; MEA media changing labour, per week, 1-3 plates, $76 / $99 / $130. Readout: MEA recording, per recording, $49 / $64 / $84; MEA data analysis, per plate across multiple time points, $439 / $571 / $747. Project planning fee, per new project, $290 / $377 / $493. Worked bottom-up total for one 48-well plate of NGN2 cortical neurons at 3 weeks with glia, four weeks of maintenance, one recording and analysis, at the EXTERNAL ACADEMIC tier: plate $420 plus plating reagents $167 plus plating labour $271 plus glia $625 plus neurons $2,334 equals $3,817 to a plated culture; media changing at ($203 + $99) per week for 4 weeks adds $1,208; recording $64 plus data analysis $571 plus a one-off project planning fee $377 brings the total to $6,037. That arithmetic is ours; every input is a published line on the vendor's own card. No commercial vendor publishes an equivalent itemised schedule, and no MEA vendor publishes a plate list price at all, so this rate card is the only bottom-up figure available in the category.
These are supplier list prices we located and recorded, not a quotation from Wetware World. Your price depends on quantity, specification and freight, and is only binding once issued in writing.
What you must specify
A quote cannot be produced without these. Anything you leave open, a supplier will assume, usually expensively.
| # | Parameter |
|---|---|
| 01 | MEA hardware platform and plate format the culture must be compatible with |
| 02 | Neuronal induction route and differentiation age at plating, which drives most of the cost |
| 03 | Neuronal subtype and genotype, including any named disease mutation or isogenic control |
| 04 | Whether glia are included, and at what ratio |
| 05 | Plating density per electrode area |
| 06 | Network activity acceptance criterion, such as mean firing rate, burst frequency or synchrony index |
| 07 | Culture age at delivery and required post-delivery viable lifetime |
| 08 | Number of plates, since plating and media-changing labour are banded by plate count |
| 09 | Delivery mode: live shipped culture, plated-and-frozen, or the recording bought as a service instead |
| 10 | Customer tier eligibility where an academic core rate card applies |
Quality documentation
Typically available with this item. What actually ships is confirmed on the quotation, per supplier.
- Certificates of analysis for neurons and glia
- Pre-shipment electrophysiological activity record, which must be contracted explicitly
- Plating density and coverage confirmation
- Viability at release
- Sterility and mycoplasma
Candidate suppliers
Organisations we have identified as capable. Listing does not imply a partnership, an endorsement, or that they have agreed to quote.
| Organisation | Basis for inclusion |
|---|---|
| Boston Children's Hospital IDDRC Human Neuron Unit | Published fee schedule fetched live 2026-09-01. Itemises the entire workflow separately across three customer tiers: neuron differentiation by lineage and age, MEA plate, plating reagents, plating labour banded by plate count, glia for plating, media changing reagents and labour per week, MEA recording per recording, and MEA data analysis per plate. Note the glia line is identical across all three tiers while cells carry a 1.30x and services roughly a 1.70x academic multiplier. Industry access is offered for some lines and explicitly not offered for the NGN2 and iGABA lines. |
| iXCells Biotechnologies | Public WooCommerce Store API returns live USD list prices per SKU, queried 2026-09-01. Supplies the cortical neuron and astrocyte inputs at published per-vial prices where the buyer prefers commercial cells to a core facility differentiation. |
| Axion BioSystems | Publishes a full plate compatibility matrix with catalogue numbers, well counts, electrode counts per well, bottom material and wall colour, and no price at all. Plate figures elsewhere in this catalogue are derived from federal award records with stated quantities and are upper bounds. |
| eNUVIO (contract research) | Service list explicitly includes neural spheroids and 2D-3D neuromuscular junction models, and states the company develops customised assays rather than off-the-shelf ones. A live commercial quote channel to hold against the published academic rate card. |
Sources
doc WW-NI-14639 · rev 2026-09-03 · research use only · prices indicative and not binding until quoted in writing