First Deals for High-Speed Screening of Ion Channel Drug

Sophion Bioscience, part of Biolin Scientific, has received its first purchase orders for its new high throughput screening platform from leading pharma companies. The Sophion Qube™ measures the effect of potential new drug candidates directly on ion channels in living cells. By a unique combination of high quality recordings and high throughput, the Sophion Qube™ can boost the productivity of the first phases of ion channel drug discovery dramatically.

Qube™ is a 384-channel automatic patch clamp system that delivers ion channel data at an unprecedented throughput. At full integration into an existing screening line, Sophion Qube™ has the capacity to test more than 30,000 compounds in 24 hours. For up to 4 hours unattended operations, Sophion Qube™ is also available as a stand-alone system.

Sophion Qube™ is designed to reduce development time of drugs targeting ion channels, for indications like pain, epilepsy, bipolar disorder, depression and cystic fibrosis.

Morten Sunesen, VP of Drug Discovery Systems at Biolin Scientific, commented: "I am very happy to see that the most prestigious ion-channel laboratories in the world have chosen Sophion Qube™. It’s solid proof of our concept of uniting manual patch clamp quality with high throughput. Sophion Qube™ delivers a torrent of information for characterizing ion channels. Instead of screening on secondary information, we’re getting direct measurement at the point of action. That’s highly valuable for an evidence-based approach in drug discovery, and can greatly enhance the way ion channel drug discovery works”.