Development and Evaluation of Novel Solution Pairs to Enhance Seal Resistance in Automated Patch Clamp Experiments

Poster Description

Introduction

Gigaohm seals (‘gigaseals’) are essential for patch clamp electrophysiology, enabling high-quality recordings by ensuring strong electrical access to cells. In manual patch clamp, seals form between the cell membrane and glass pipette, while in planar patch clamp, they form on a chip substrate. Planar patch clamp often uses seal enhancers like CaF2, which is believed to promote sealing through CaF2 precipitate formation at the solution interface. However, F- can interfere with intracellular components and affect ion channel properties. To address these issues, Sophion developed new seal-enhancing solutions in 2017 (Patent: WO2018100206A1). Metrion and Sophion later collaborated to explore alternative insoluble salts and their impact on ion channels' biophysics and pharmacology.

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