Patchserver

The Patchserver is a system for parallelized patch clamp measurements using patch pipette arrays and includes a novel method for micrometer-accurate electrode positioning. An outstanding feature of the system is the possibility of targeted selection and optical control of suitable cells. An integrated microfluidic system will enable the addition and removal of active substances according to the "laminar flow" principle with exchange times in the single-digit microsecond range.

Ion channels are integral proteins of the cell membrane and play a central role in many physiological processes and diseases. The gold standard for electrophysiological analysis of ion channels is the manual patch-clamp technique, which is time-consuming and expensive for larger studies. Although chip-based automated variants of the patch-clamp technique are available for high throughput, these cannot cover all use cases. This is especially true for studies where relevant cells need to be specifically selected and applications where solution change times in the single-digit microsecond range are required. The solution is an integrated microsystem that promises to dramatically increase the efficiency of such manual patch clamp measurements.

The development of such a system is to be realized in the present project and can later be used by users from both the academic field and the pharmaceutical industry. The aim of the project is the realization of a microsystem, with which patch clamp analyses with several patch pipettes can be carried out in parallel and under fastest active substance application as far as possible automatically. The advantage over chip-based "patch automats" is that the main strengths of the manual patch clamp technique are retained. Thus, it will still be possible to select the cells to be measured and to manipulate them experimentally. For this purpose, the system to be developed must be able to use microfluidics and automated micropositioning to selectively isolate and spatially fix individual living cells with specific properties from a cell suspension, position them with micrometer precision against the electrode tips of a pipette array, and thus perform electrophysiological analysis in parallel and in an automated manner over multiple channels. An integrated microfluidic system is expected to enable drug addition and removal with exchange times in the single-digit microsecond range. Later users are electrophysiological groups in academia as well as users or customers from the pharmaceutical industry in the areas[nbsp] of preclinical compound testing and safety pharmacology. 

The Patchserver is a system for parallelized patch clamp measurements using patch pipette arrays and includes a novel method for micrometer-accurate electrode positioning. An outstanding feature of the system is the possibility of targeted selection and optical control of suitable cells. An integrated microfluidic system will enable the addition and removal of active substances according to the "laminar flow" principle with exchange times in the single-digit microsecond range.