Sealchip Background

What
The SealChip is a planar voltage clamp tool on a microchip that enables the study of ion channels on a cell membrane.

Why
Most ion channels on the cell membranes, whether native or transfected, produce an ionic current when they are opened. Voltage channel gating can be voltage-operated or receptor-operated or both. When a channel gate opens at a clamped voltage, it produces a current that has time-dependent and voltage-dependent kinetics. It is important to understand the function of ion channels since they are the cell’s primary means of interacting with its environment, of knowing when to contract, when to secrete, when to divide, etc.

Where
It is estimated that there are more than 300 genes that code for ion channels, and an unknown number of genes that code for ion channel interacting proteins. These represent the most direct targets for pharmaceutical agents, however they are underrepresented in the present pharmacopia because the measurement of ion channel function by conventional methods is tedious and too low throughput to allow efficient screening for new drugs that act on ion channels. The Sealchip product line is targeted at the pharmaceutical industry.

When
The first product of the SealChip series is the SealChip16. It provides the ability to voltage clamp up to 16 cells in parallel and asynchronously using a PatchXpress series instrument, resulting in a throughput of 100 to 600 cells per day (depending on test procedures). The device is ideal for assay development, target validation, late secondary screening, and safety screening. It is the best and preferred method for safety screening and has therefore become a popular tool for screening for unwanted inhibition of hERG ion channels by candidate pharmaceutical agents.

Who
AVIVA Biosciences has an exclusive agreement with Molecular Devices as the sole provider of biochips for use in the PatchXpress products. Likewise, the PatchXpress products may only utilize the SealChip16 biochips.

How
SealChip16 employs a transparent substrate on a plastic cartridge. The substrate is chemically modified to engineer a surface that is specifically designed to interact maximally with chemical species present on a cell membrane. This results in very quick gigaohm seals. SealChips enjoy the fame of having the highest success rate at forming gigaohm seals, usually within 10 seconds of contact with a cell.

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