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Stimulatrix: An open-source automated platform for high-throughput functional characterization of engineered contractile tissues

Winkelbauer, M.; Bast, J.; Casalino, E. S.; Bulatova, M.; Generali, M.; Mohammed, S.; D'Hulst, G.; Laumonier, T.; Paneni, F.; De Bock, K.; Katiyar, P.; Bar-Nur, O.; Chansoria, P.

2026-09-25 bioengineering
10.64898/2026.09.24.750079 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Engineered cardiac and skeletal muscle tissues suspended between flexible posts support disease modeling and pharmacology, yet their stimulation, longitudinal imaging and quantitative analysis often remain fragmented and labor-intensive. Here we present Stimulatrix, an open-source platform integrating automated video acquisition within a cell culture incubator, synchronized electrical stimulation and deep learning for longitudinal assessment of contractile tissues in multiwell plates. The platform quantifies tissue compaction, force generation and contraction kinetics with optional cloud processing reducing dependence on local GPU hardware. We demonstrate the workflow in cardiac tissues comprising human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes and cardiac fibroblasts, and in primary human skeletal muscle constructs. Force and kinetic measurements were benchmarked against manual annotations. Longitudinal profiling resolved responses to matrix composition and pacing regimens and tracked doxorubicin-associated loss of cardiac contractile force. Stimulatrix provides an accessible workflow for automated functional phenotyping of engineered muscle tissues.

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