Pressure control valves from Festo have been an integral part of the automated patch clamp solutions from Danish company Sophion Bioscience for over 15 years. Thanks to the high precision of the new proportional valve terminal VTEP, the ion channels of human cells can be studied even more accurately. The resulting high degree of standardization of the tests enables faster development of drugs, and research into possible side effects.
Almost a third of all diseases are caused by malfunctions in the ion channels of cells. Ion channels comprise a diverse and extensive category of membrane proteins that function as so-called transducers for electrical signals, and regulate the electrical properties of all living cells. For example, ion channels play a central role in the generation of action potentials in excitable cells, such as those found in the heart and brain.
With its patch-clamp systems, Sophion is accelerating the development of drugs that can alleviate or eliminate channelopathies such as cystic fibrosis, epilepsy, or heart arrhythmia.
The automated solution replaces the traditional, very time-consuming manual method of patch clamping. Patch clamping is used to directly measure the movement of ions through cell membranes via ion channels. The cell membrane is tightly sealed with a pipette or a small hole in a surface. By applying a slight vacuum, the inner contents of the cell and the solution come into direct contact so that electrodes can measure very small electrical currents that flow across the cell membrane through the ion channels. This examination process can not only be significantly accelerated by automation, but the high precision of the processes also means that the results of the examination are much more stable.
The new systems allow the simultaneous measurement of 8, 16, 48 or 384 cells, giving researchers more replicates, and more data for research, characterization, or even screening.