Basic and Preclinical Research Services

LIMR offers research services to research and affiliated faculty, incubating companies, and physicians throughout Main Line Health. Below you will find information about various services.

LIMR’s 6,500-square-foot vivarium is also available to non-Main Line Health researchers in the Philadelphia region. Please contact Matt Finley, PhD, at [email protected] for more information and specific rates.

Cardiac safety assessment services

The Cardiovascular Research Group (CRG) at LIMR, led by cardiologist Gan-Xin Yan, MD, PhD, provides drug development companies worldwide with a complete range of cardiac safety assessment services. The CRG offers an integrated portfolio of cardiac safety assays from the cellular level to the whole organ. These assays include:

  • Wedge Preparation Assay
  • hERG Potassium Current Analysis
  • INa and ICa Screening
  • Human Cardiomyocyte Ion Channel Assay
  • Action Potential Assay

For a full description of services, download LIMR Cardiovascular Research Group - Cardiac Safety Assessment Services.

Read more in the manuscript “Utility of normalized TdP score system in drug proarrhythmic potential assessment: a blinded in vitro study of CiPA drugs,” published in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

The unique ventricular wedge preparation first developed by Dr. Yan has been adopted by many pharmaceutical and biotech companies internationally for cardiac safety assessment. This wedge preparation possesses many advantages over traditional methods to study electrical signals traveling within the heart. Three separate floating microelectrodes are used to record the signals in the outer, mid, and inner regions of the heart. The experimental findings based on the ventricular wedge model have led to several fundamental changes in our thinking as to the origin and maintenance of normal as well as abnormal heart rhythms.

Please contact Dr. Yan at [email protected] for assessment pricing information.

Review of sponsored clinical studies

As of January 2022, the following fee schedule has been revised for MLH IRB study review. Initial and continuing review fees for Industry Sponsored Studies have been adjusted to account for increasing costs. Please note there are new fees associated with amendments for industry initiated amendments, multicenter clinical trials with external IRB review and optional MLH IRB review by independent physicians.

These fees should be negotiated in all Clinical Trial Agreements/Contracts.

Download the MLH Institutional Review Board Fees (PDF)