Qube 384 is a dedicated, bespoke platform building on over twenty-five years of proven technology and components developed by Sophion to empower the next generation of researchers. The third generation of Qube 384 is more advanced than ever, offering a range of new features to enable new discoveries in ion channel research.

The ability to test thousands of compounds simultaneously greatly enhances the screening of potential drug candidates. Compared to manual patch clamping, the Qube 384 increases efficiency significantly, allowing experiments to run with minimal supervision while preserving the high fidelity that is a hall mark of this discipline.
With autonomous operation, you can collect data faster, shortening the traditional pre-clinical drug development by up to 33 months.
Qube 384 also lowers the overall cost of drug screening. Early identification of promising compounds helps reduce expenses related to later-stage failures in development.
Additionally, the advanced data analysis tools provide in-depth and full insights into ion channel behavior.

Qube 384 benefits

• Maximum throughput
• Reduced development time
• Consistency and accuracy
• Reduced cost per data point
• Decreased reliance on manual labor

The Qube 384 enables experiments on many cells in parallel, allowing the study of multiple ion channel types, conditions, or compounds in less time. This expands the scope of research and supports high-impact studies.
The platform reduces the need for specialized skills and saves time, so researchers can focus on data analysis and experimental design instead of manual tasks.
Automation minimizes variability and improves reproducibility, ensuring consistent and unbiased results that can be easily replicated by others.
Advanced Sophion® data analysis tools provide real-time feedback and deep insights into ion channel behavior, helping researchers quickly spot biophysical mechanisms, enhancing understanding of ion channels in health and disease.
The Qube 384 is easy to use for students and junior researchers and promotes collaboration between labs, making data sharing and large-scale studies easier.

Qube 384 benefits

• Broader research scope
• Reduced reliance on manual processes
•  Improved reproducibility and consistency
• Un-biased test results
• Advanced data analysis tools
• Complex experiment features
• Easy learning experience

We believe continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection
That’s why Qube is designed to evolve with your changing needs in ion channel research.
Intelligent software upgrades, part of our commitment to innovation and your service agreement with Sophion, ensure you always have access to the latest advancements.
With the ability to integrate new, critical features, Qube 384 is a future-proof investment. Built on proven, proprietary technology developed in-house by Sophion, it is designed for continuous improvement, shaped by valuable feedback from Qube users worldwide.
Let’s meet to discuss the exciting roadmap of the Qube Dynamic platform.

Qube Dynamic Platform

• Ongoing software updates
• Proprietary technology prepared for feature upgrades
• Ongoing enhancements in consumable efficiency
• Easy adaption to future research demands
• Guaranteed up-to-date investment

With the true walk-away operation, you can efficiently utilize laboratory resources to meet demanding timelines, save valuable time, while ensuring the highest success rates for your drug discovery and ion channel research.

Automated patch clamping quickly generates vast data sets, requiring efficient data handling. Sophion Analyzer is the analysis software for all Sophion platforms and it provides advanced analysis of thousands of experiments at once, preserving the detail typical of patch clamp data.
Automatic project analysis frees up time for planning the output of the results, discussing lead profiles with the chemist and discover new biophysical characteristics.

• Simple and efficient handling of extremely large amounts of research data
• Database ensures the original data is protected so no one can change it
• Enabled for Sophion Thor® – store and share data in the cloud
• Access your data from anywhere using the internet
• Tracks every change to give audit trails and full traceability for GLP
• Easy to use with Sophie® – your digital assistant
• Pre-made project templates make it easy to focus on your core tasks

All Sophion’s patch-clamp amplifiers utilize a patented technology enabling up to 100% Rs compensation and are equipped with automatic clip detection to avoid loss of cells due to fatal oscillations. Thereby, increasing data throughput while maintaining high-quality recordings. At Sophion we develop our own amplifiers. We were the first to develop adaptive voltage- and current clamp protocols as well as fast leak and capacitance compensation. We don’t stop and future developments will also become available for Qube 384.

• Increase patch clamp accuracy
• Up to 100% Rs compensation using
• Patented algorithms
• Execute differentiated protocols across the same QChip, both pressure and voltage and current clamp, to maximize the output

Voltage clamping is a technique used to control the membrane potential of a cell while measuring the ionic currents that pass through its membrane. This technique can be applied to whole cells or to isolated sections of the membrane.
Adaptive voltage clamp is a unique feature of Sophion amplifiers, which optimizes voltage clamp protocols individually to each cell’s biophysical properties. The Qube 384 system will automatically perform Boltzmann fits for each cell online. This is to estimate the cell-specific voltage needed to activate XX% of the receptor population or the voltage that keeps XX% of the cells in an inactivated state.

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

Adaptive current clamp is a unique feature of Sophion amplifiers. The main challenge with current clamp on automated patch clamp platforms is the variation in sealing and resting membrane potential from cell to cell. This makes it impossible to design one current clamp protocol to work on all cells. We have solved that with our unique Adaptive Current Clamp feature.
With Sophion’s automated current clamp, you can either choose the adaptive current clamp feature and evaluate the resting membrane potential individually and set the holding potential accordingly.
Adaptive current clamp can correct the resting membrane potential for each cell in parallel improving AP phenotype and increasing success rates. Left panel: Detailed view. Right panel: Examples of cell without adaptive current clamp (left) and with adaptive current clamp (right), which gives much more physiological responses.
Sophion’s adaptive current clamp utilizes an advanced feedback regulation technique that generates the voltage needed to inject the requested current into the cell, as defined in the assay setup software.
The electrical cell-chip parameters are measured for each measurement site before an experiment, to increase measurement stability. The results are used to make individual adjustments to the feedback loop. This advanced regulation and control on individual measurement sites are only possible since we have developed amplifiers specifically for automated patch clamp.

• Automated cell-specific current clamp analysis
• Current clamp or mixed voltage and current clam recordings in the same sweep
• Adaptive current clamp to obtain individual resting membrane potential and Irheo

• No desensitization and reduced agonist exposure due to stacking in tips
• Ultra-precise concentration control, due to separate inlets and outlets on QChip connected by microfluidic channels
• Pipetting robot available for compound plate preparation
• Exchange of IC during experiment with as little as 22 µL per column

The hallmark of the Qube automation is cell handling, which has been designed for >8 hours unattended operation. With the true walk-away operation, you can efficiently utilize laboratory resources to meet demanding timelines, save valuable time, while ensuring the highest success rates for your drug discovery and ion channel research.
With the ability to use a low volume cell transfer plate and partial QChip execution, extremely low cell consumption is attainable, e.g. for iPSC and primary cell preparations.

• Prepares and delivers fresh cells precisely when required
• Simplifies workflow and saves time and resources
• Extremely low cell consumption

Sophion’s precise temperature control allows for both heating and cooling of the experiment. You can perform experiments at controlled temperatures and both cool and heat the experiment. This reduces fluctuations caused by temperature changes in your laboratory environment and thus ensuring higher repeatability and reproducibility
With our temperature control modules, we allow for accurate and rapid temperature regulation ranging from 10-42°C with high precision and accuracy of ±0.5°C.
Temperature measurement and feedback are taken directly from the bed-of-nails (BON) beneath the measurement sites. The temperature regulation is performed using circulating water in the BON. It is not a straightforward engineering task to integrate liquid flow in the BON. However, temperature control must be performed very close to the measurement sites to ensure precise control with minimum fluctuations. If not, laboratory and cabinet temperature will influence the accuracy significantly.

• Extremely accurate temperature regulation
• Higher repeatability and reproducibility
• Perform experiments at controlled physiological temperatures

A decade of continuous innovation, driven by user feedback and close collaboration. We don’t just meet demands, we anticipate future needs. The seamless integration between the mounting plate and the operating system interface is just one example of the thoughtful design behind the all-new Qube 384.

We’ve taken automated patch clamping a step further, virtually eliminating the risk of human error. Assembly and preparation are foolproof – every component fits logically into place.
We believe automation should simplify, not complicate. That’s why we’ve designed our system with the user in mind, ensuring effortless adaptation so researchers can dedicate their time to groundbreaking ion channel studies.
Every day, the Qube 384 will make your work easier and more efficient.