Nanion Starts Shipping the SyncroPatch 384 Patch Engine - a Revolutionary Instrument for Giga-Seal, Automated Patch Clamp-Based Ion Channel Drug Screening

The brand-new SyncroPatch 384 Patch Engine (PE) now released by Nanion Technologies propels ion channel drug discovery to a new level. Designed for seamless integration into process-automated drug screening environments, the Patch Engine is equipped with 384 patch clamp amplifiers and an advanced 384 channel liquid handling robot.

The SyncroPatch 384PE is the high quality, automated patch clamp system able to finally thrust gold standard electrophysiology from secondary to primary ion channel drug screening. Allowing for up to 20,000 data points per day, it is the most efficient platform on the market for high quality, ion channel recordings. This efficiency is primarily due to fully parallel measurements from 384 cells, the 384-channel pipettor, and an exceptionally efficient control and analysis software. Both hardware and software have been fully tested and validated with leading players in industrial ion channel drug development to provide optimum performance in true HTS for ion channel screening. Designed for seamless integration into process-automated drug screening environments, the Patch Engine is equipped with 384 patch clamp amplifiers and an advanced 384 channel liquid handling robot.

In contrast to prior automated patch clamp devices, which are stand-alone machines, the Patch Engine is a modular approach specifically designed for integration with all aspects of process-automated screening environments. Up to two of the 384 channel patch clamp modules can be integrated into one liquid handling robot, enabling 768 recording wells to be measured simultaneously. Success rates are routinely over 85%, and liquid consumption is low. A full run of 384 cells for dose response analysis takes less than 15 minutes, delivering several thousand data points per hour.

Dr. Niels Fertig, CEO of Nanion says: “The SyncroPatch 384PE is a landmark in the history of automated patch clamping. It follows a completely revolutionary concept: a truly modular and HTS-capable automated patch clamp device that will integrate into your existing or planned screening process line, rather than being a closed, stand-alone system. No other platform on the market is capable of recording 384 to 768 cells in parallel, let alone with giga-seals. In development, we have carefully listened to key customers from industrial pharma high throughput screening laboratories to fulfil their requirements of HTS-settings. We are extremely excited and enthusiastic about our new platform, and so are the first customers who recently invested in several SyncroPatch PE instruments. We are happy to announce that we are now taking orders for delivery in 2013 of this maturely developed and fully validated platform.“

The SyncroPatch 384PE has successfully been validated with a wide variety of different cell types and ion channels, with consistently high performance regarding seal quality and stability. The excellent success rates and cell-stability promote efficient and reliable drug screening, thus minimizing the need of replicate experiments. The SyncroPatch 384PE is now fully available for sale, with the first systems being shipped during the coming month.