QPatch Compact – A planar patch clamp alternative
Are you already used to planar patch-clamp but not happy with the use of seal enhancers?
The QPlate is unique with its microflow-based design and silicon-coated lining, ensuring efficient compound exchange and gigaohm seals without using seal enhancers.
Seal enhancers are generally unwanted since they do not simulate physiological conditions and can create artefacts (Lei et al., 2021).
Some APC manufacturers rely on seal enhancers to achieve consistent gigaohm seal formation. We don’t. Silicon surfaces in the QPlate promote both high sealing and a low propensity to stick to compounds.
- Giga-Ω seals in physiological solutions
- Microfluidic channels for precise liquid handling
- Minute compound quantities required
- Ready-to-use, individual, built-in electrode pairs
Eight simultaneous experiments and automated analysis
The QPlate is unique with the microflow-based design and silicon-coated lining that assure efficient compound exchange and gigaohm seals without using seal enhancers.
Eight simultaneous experiments generate sufficient data to fuel even your most demanding chemist with data. The software helps you set up and analyze experiments. All you have to do is prepare the cells and handle the pipetting of solutions guided by the instrument.
- Sufficient data, highly reproducible
- Automated analysis
- Objective replication
Entry model for automated patch clamp
Did you always dream of the QPatch system but could not justify the investment? QPatch Compact is an affordable alternative to a higher throughput APC system with a price similar to a manual patch-clamp rig.
- Automated whole cells, giga-seals on demand
- Manual pipetting
- Automated analysis
Precise concentration at the cell
Only 2 µL of liquid surrounding the cell is patched in a QPlate 8 recording plate. The exchange happens quickly and completely when the next liquid is introduced to ensure precise control over the cell’s microenvironment. That is important for studying the ion channel’s kinetics and preventing desensitization due to over-exposure to higher-than-wanted concentrations. The latter will happen in an open-well architecture where you rely on an in-well dilution to occur in an uncontrolled manner.
- “Concentration-clamp” due to microfluidic channels
- No overshoot of concentration
- More control, less desensitization
- Fast exchange of liquid