IonWorks Barracuda Automated Patch Clamp System

IonWorks Quattro SystemA high-throughput system for electrophysiological screening> Population Patch Clamptechnology> USED FOR DIRECTED SCREENS,HIT CONFIRMATION, SAFETYPROFILING, PHARMACOLOGY> Easy set-up and operation> Complete turnkey solutionVoltage-gated ion channels represent a largelyuntapped portion of the drug target market.Until recently, voltage-gated ion channels havebeen studied using either conventional patchclamp techniques or indirect higher throughputmethods, which include assays such as radioligandbinding, ion flux or fluorescent indicators ofmembrane potential or intracellular calcium.Although these methods have high throughput,they lack direct voltage control and cannotdrive ion channels to specific conformationalstates. Therefore, the informational content ofthese screens is not as biologically relevant asconventional patch clamping.The throughput of conventional patch clampingis extremely low, which creates a severe bottleneckin the follow-up of HTS assays from the indirecttechniques. To address this bottleneck, MolecularDevices introduced the IonWorks Quattro System in 2005. The system offers higherthroughput than conventional patch clamping,making it perfect for secondary screening of hitsfrom HTS, primary screening of directed libraries,early safety profiling and pharmacology assays.POPULATION PATCH CLAMP TECHNOLOGYThe IonWorks Quattro System utilizes a newPatchPlate substrate with Population PatchClamp (PPC) Technology that contains multiplerecording sites per well. (See Figure 1.) Themeasured ion channel current from each wellis an ensemble-average of a population of cells.With PPC Technology, well-to-well variability isdramatically reduced. (See Figure 2.) In addition,the success rate of obtaining a current measurementfrom each well utilizing the new PatchPlatePPC Consumable is nearly perfect (> 95%). Asa result, subsequent IC 50 determinations arehighly consistent (Figure 3) with robust Z'factors. Hence the throughput of the IonWorksQuattro System is increased four-fold over theIonWorks ® HT System—already the highestthroughput electrophysiology screening systemon the market. The cost per data point isalso significantly reduced by more than 50%compared to the IonWorks HT System. TheIonWorks Quattro System with Population PatchClamp Technology is yet another innovative andrevolutionary advance in ion channel screeninginstrumentation from Molecular Devices.