Adaptive voltage clamp, also called ‘online V_x estimation’ allows voltage protocols to be individually optimized for each cell’s electrical properties. By automatically performing Boltzmann fits online for each cell, the system estimates the cell-specific voltage needed to activate half of the receptor population or the voltage that keeps half of the cells in an inactivated state.

A lot tighter screening data can be obtained with adaptive voltage protocols. This is demonstrated in the application report and the poster by Charles River Laboratories.

Individually estimated V_half is attractive to increase the precision of pharmacological data. V_half is located on the steepest part of the activation curve. Even slight cell-to-cell variance will significantly impact the elicited current and, thus, the pharmacologically relevant response.

An adaptive protocol first includes an activation or inactivation protocol from which the specific parameters can be estimated. Immediately after the estimated values can be used in the voltage protocol to adapting the experimental protocol to the cell’s electrical properties.

If an unstable cell gives rise to a low-quality fit, a backup mechanism will take over and clamp the cell to a predefined value. Thereby, you have no data loss.

• Automated cell-specific Boltzmann fit
• Clamping to the cell-specific V_half
• Activation and inactivation protocols
• Online parameter quality control
• No data loss if Boltzmann fit is poor

To learn more, read the application report (Qube) and the poster (QPatchII) by Sophion Bioscience.

Adaptive protocols are available for all APC systems.