Molecular Devices Introduces IonWorks System for High-Throughput Ion Channel Screening
20-Sep-2002
Sunnyvale, Sept. 18, 2002 - Molecular Devices Corporation announced the introduction of IonWorks HT automated patch clamp system for ion channel screening in drug discovery. IonWorks HT is a complete turnkey system that benefits drug discovery researchers by increasing throughput -- to up to 3,000 patches per day -- and drastically reducing hands-on time. Molecular Devices will provide demonstrations of this new system in its booth at the Society for Biomolecular Screening Annual Conference and Exhibition, September 23-26, 2002 in The Hague, Netherlands.
Commenting on the launch of the IonWorks HT system, John Senaldi, Vice President and General Manager of IonWorks at Molecular Devices, noted, "Molecular Devices has a history of providing innovative solutions for drug discovery and life sciences research. With our new IonWorks HT system, we introduce an enabling alternative to the current gold-standard of electrophysiology screening. This new system overcomes many of the hurdles associated with traditional patch clamp methods by dramatically reducing the time and labor required to perform ion channel assays. The IonWorks HT system is designed to allow researchers to obtain reliable, reproducible results with considerably less effort." Senaldi further stated, "The IonWorks HT system adds to Molecular Devices' growing portfolio of tools that enable both high-content and high-throughput solutions for drug discovery research."
The IonWorks HT system performs whole-cell patch clamping on multiple cells in parallel and greatly increases throughput over existing high-information content methods. The system quickly loads the wells and achieves multiple seals at a time. During processing, the system measures whole-cell current from multiple cells simultaneously using the multi-channel (48) voltage clamp amplifier. The system aspirates from standard 96- and 384-well microplate formats and dispenses reagents in parallel with a 12-channel pipettor. With the IonWorks HT system, it is easy to set up and run experiments. Typical experiments measure an entire plate in about 30 minutes -- translating into overall throughput of up to 3,000 patches per day.
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