Epilepsy affects approximately 50 million people worldwide, yet more than 30% of patients remain drug resistant despite the availability of over 20 approved antiepileptic drugs. Progress in drug development has been limited by the lack of human-relevant functional models: conventional 2D neuronal cultures fail to capture network-level seizure dynamics, while animal models often diverge from human ion channel biology and pharmacological response.

In this application note, we demonstrate how 28bio CNS-3D Brain Organoids enable reproducible induction of seizure-like network hyperexcitability and quantitative functional rescue using human iPSC-derived neural networks. Functional calcium imaging reveals dose- and time-dependent responses across AEDs with diverse mechanisms of action, distinguishing targeted normalization of network activity from nonspecific suppression. Together, these data illustrate how CNS-3D supports earlier prioritization and down-selection of AED candidates ahead of in vivo studies, based on human-relevant functional efficacy.

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