Service history
Our MDMi model has been widely adopted by independent research groups, demonstrating its broad applicability and reproducibility. It has been used by the University of Melbourne to study motor neurone disease, retinal dysfunction, and Alzheimer's disease; the Menzies Institute for Medical Research (University of Tasmania) and the Queensland Brain Institute (UQ) for compound and target testing; and Queensland University of Technology to model real-world environmental exposures, including bushfire smoke.
- Implicit Bioscience - tested their compound IC14 (CD14; PMID: 40064964) in our MDMi platform
- GenieUs Genomics – working on a new immunomodulatory target in microglia using motor neurone disease patient-derived cells
- Takeda (Pharmaceutical Company) – evaluated repurposed drug compounds targeting microglia in Alzheimer’s disease patient-derived models
- Aperture Therapeutics - co-funding application in place for microglial testing of new therapeutic compound
Our service portfolio
Our published work describes MDMi applications in Alzheimer’s disease. We also have utilized MDMi cultures in the context of Huntington’s disease, Motor Neurone Disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) and Parkinson’s Disease.
From drug testing in disease-relevant contexts and dose evaluation to bespoke mechanistic investigations, our MDMi platform offers flexible, tailored solutions to support your research goals:
- Assessment of drug responses in patient-specific MDMi, including inter-donor variability and differences across disease cohorts
- 2D versus 3D culture conditions
- Candidate drug screening in clinically relevant, patient-derived human microglia-like models
- Mechanistic studies of neuroinflammation, microglial activation and pathogenic pathways
- Comparative analysis of donor-specific responses across healthy and disease groups
- Multi-modal functional profiling, including cytokine and growth factor release, gene expression, morphology, phagocytosis, and live-cell response assays
- Direct comparison of 2D vs 3D systems to assess physiological relevance and modelling capacity
- Early-stage patient stratification and responder identification to support translational medicine
- Application across neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory disease contexts
- Custom-designed projects tailored to specific research needs and objectives
- Integration into our Blood-brain barrier model
Publications
- Quek H, et al. (2022). ALS monocyte-derived microglia-like cells reveal cytoplasmic TDP-43 accumulation, DNA damage, and cell-specific impairment of phagocytosis associated with disease
progression. Journal of Neuroinflammation, 19, 58. - Quek H, et al. (2022). A robust approach to differentiate human monocyte-derived microglia from peripheral blood mononuclear cells. STAR Protocols, 3, 101747.\Cuní-López C, et al. (2023). 3D in vitro modelling of human patient microglia: A focus on clinical
translation and drug development in neurodegenerative diseases. Journal of Neuroimmunology, 375, 578017. - Quek H, White AR. (2023). Patient-specific monocyte-derived microglia as a screening tool for neurodegenerative diseases. Neural Regeneration Research, 18, 955–958.
- Cuní-López C, et al. (2024). Advanced patient-specific microglia cell models for pre-clinical studies in Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Neuroinflammation, 21, 50.
- Cuní-López C, et al. (2025). Exploring a patient-specific in vitro pipeline for stratification and drug response prediction of microglia-based therapeutics. Scientific Reports, 15, 8296.
- Etebar F, et al. (2026). Microglial heterogeneity: influence of human 2D, 3D, and co-culture models on gene expression and immune function. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 20, 1770518.
- Cuní-López C, et al. (2022). Recent advances in microglia modelling to address translational outcomes in neurodegenerative diseases. Cells, 11, 1662.