While the classical patch-clamp technique is the standard for ion channel investigations, it is a labour-intensive method performed only by skilled scientists. It hence fails to meet the requirements of pharmaceutical drug testing in regards to cost and time employed per data point.
Nanion's Port-a-Patch, claims to be the world's smallest patch-clamp workstation, and uses Nanion's planar patch clamp chips providing data on any ion channel target. Experiments are performed on a single cell at a time, whereby whole dose response curves can be obtained from a single cell.
Additionally, with the Port-a-Patch, Nanion offers a tool for target validation and safety pharmacology (hERG screening), that ideally complements other high throughput screening techniques.
Due to its miniaturisation, compound consumption is extremely low (in the µl range). The Port-a-Patch enables a fast fluid exchange on the chip, allowing for experiments not only on voltage gated, but also on ligand gated ion channels. A software controlled perfusion system (8 channels) is also available from Nanion.
Dr Niels Fertig, CEO of Nanion, told DrugResearcher.com: "Currently, there is a gulf between high throughput patch clamp robots and the conventional pipette based patch clamp rig. With the Port-a-Patch workstation, the throughput can be increased by a factor of 2-3 compared to conventional patch clamping."
"While this is not defined as high throughput, Port-a-patch is an automated patch clamp rig, that gives high performance with medium throughput, providing data and which can be run by technical staff instead of PhD-type personnel," he added.
The Port-a-Patch is aimed at the pharmaceutical industry and biotech companies as well as academic labs and research institutes. It is ideal for target validation and lead validation, allowing for high content analysis like dose response measurements with multiple drug concentrations on a single cell. It is also suitable for voltage gated channels as well as for ligand gated targets.
Another application of the system is in safety pharmacology for testing hERG activity of compounds. It also is a very useful in molecular biology to quickly check if a transfected cell line expresses the ion channel of interest.
Estimates for the ion channel screening market have placed a value estimated in 2004 to be $58.9 million (€49 million) and $15.7 million for in house and outsourced profiling respectively.
"The market for patch clamp/ion channel screening is very dynamically growing," said Fertig.
"This is mainly due to the new enabling technology of automated patch clamp systems. Planar patch clamping really has revolutionised the way ion channel screening is carried out in the industry. Since its advent, the interest in ion channels as drug targets has tremendously increased," he added.
The Port-a-Patch is available now with pricing dependent on the configuration of the system.