US Patent 7148059 Myocyte culture pacing apparatus

A myocyte culture pacing apparatus operating in conjunction with a standard culture dish that permits long term maintenance of cultured myocyte cells over a period of several weeks The device includes a base unit for receiving the culture dish, and an electrode unit for placement atop the culture dish which can receive the cover of the culture dish. The electrode unit has a first and a second planar conductive electrodes extending into each well of the culture dish. The electrodes are planar and extend across the width of the well and are connected to electrical connector for connection to an external electronic unit, which supplies the a variety of electrical pulse regimes to pace the myocyte cultures. The electronic unit permits the type, frequency, duration, voltage and the current of the pulses to be varied in accordance with the desired pacing regime.