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Patch Clamp Technology in the Twenty-First Century

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Patch Clamp Electrophysiology

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2188))

Abstract

In the almost four decades since its inception, the patch clamp technique has transitioned from a specialist skill to a method commonly used among many others in a lab. Development of patch clamp instrumentation has not been steady: A boost of product releases in rapid succession by multiple manufacturers in the 1990s had slowed to a trickle by the mid-2000s. In 2016, Sutter Instrument’s entry into the market of turnkey patch clamp amplifier systems, defined as an amplifier with matching data acquisition hardware and software, caused a fresh breeze in a field in danger of going stale. Sutter has meanwhile completed the product line, culminating in the flagship dPatch® Ultra-fast, Low-noise Digital Amplifier. The dPatch System constitutes a contemporary, digital design that features many firsts, including digital signal compensation, an extremely high bandwidth and fully integrated dynamic clamp capability, paired with the increasingly popular SutterPatch® Software.

This chapter compares feature sets of the new Sutter instrumentation with the established platforms by the other two providers of turnkey systems, Axon Instruments by Molecular Devices and HEKA Elektronik by Harvard Bioscience. A variety of products from other manufacturers, who rely on combination with components from other sources rather than offering turnkey systems, are listed, but for their conceptual diversity not compared at a great level of detail. The chapter further covers architectural considerations for patch clamp systems, headstage design, data acquisition strategies and efficient structuring of the recorded data, controlling and monitoring periphery, advanced technologies, such as software lock-in amplifier capability and dynamic clamp features, and application modules for efficient analysis of action potentials and postsynaptic events.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank countless scientific contacts, customers, and coworkers for stimulating and often challenging discussions over the years. Many colleagues at Sutter Instrument have contributed to the manuscript with information, short text passages, discussion, and critique. Particular thanks go to Rich Lobdill, Hubert Affolter, Telly Galiatsatos, Greg Hjelmstad, Aaron Best, and Burt Maertz. Last but not least, Dale and Mark Flaming, owners of Sutter Instrument Company, have provided funding for development of the Patch Clamp Systems, an entirely new product line in the portfolio. This constitutes a substantial financial risk, which will hopefully be mitigated by blowing a fresh breeze into an instrumentation market that has not been particularly innovative over the past 15 years.

Declaration Regarding Potential Conflicts of Interests: The author is the Product Manager for Patch Clamp Systems at Sutter Instrument Company, one of the three providers of complete patch clamp systems. In the past, he worked for both major competitors, Axon Instruments/Molecular Devices LLC and HEKA Elektronik Dr. Schulze GmbH. Every attempt was made to describe features, advantages, and disadvantages of the products made by these three competitors in a factual, fair, and unbiased manner, assuming the point of view of a patch clamp researcher. No insider knowledge that is not in the public domain was revealed in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sutter Instrument Company, Novato, CA, USA

    Jan Dolzer

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  1. Jan Dolzer
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Correspondence to Jan Dolzer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Mark Dallas

  2. Sophion Bioscience A/S, Ballerup, Denmark

    Damian Bell

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Dolzer, J. (2021). Patch Clamp Technology in the Twenty-First Century. In: Dallas, M., Bell, D. (eds) Patch Clamp Electrophysiology. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2188. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0818-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0818-0_2

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

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