Corporate Profile
Sophion
innovation and quality S
ophion Bioscience is a Danish devel- oper and manufacturer of high-quali- ty automated patch clamp solutions for the pharmaceutical industry and acade- mia. Since Sophion’s first QPatch 16 was placed in 2004, QPatch systems have been successfully placed in a large number of labs worldwide – making QPatch a true workhorse in ion channel drug discovery. One-third of Sophion’s employees work with innovation. The company employs top scientists and engineers from fields as different as electrophysiology, patch clamp amplifiers and data acquisition, micro tech- nology, micro fluidics and lab-on-a-chip technology, lab automation, advanced data analysis and software engineering. The combined effort of these scientists has led to three QPatch models (QPatch 8, QPatch 16 and QPatch HT) and a continual flow of upgrades and improvements. For Sophion data quality is the guiding
star. Consequently all QPatch systems pro- vide the highest data quality, similar to manual patch clamping, and based on giga- ohm seals. Compound pathways, such as pipettes and the micro fluidic channels, are glass-coated thus minimising problems with compound absorption. A
novel and patented 100% R-series com- pensation provides high-quality experi- ments on fast voltage-gated ion channels. Also, ligand-gated ion channels have been in focus when developing QPatch. The unique micro fluidic channels in each QPlate measurement plate ensure rapid liq- uid exchange, and up to eight pipettes make even demanding agonist-antagonist application protocols routine. The three QPatch models have been designed in a modular way. Consequently, customers can embark on a lower-throughput model and later choose to upgrade to a higher- throughput QPatch when the need arises. QPatch is highly automated. Once loaded with cells, solutions and plates the system operates without operator interven- tion for more than four hours. This is due to the unique cell-handling unit, the Swiss- made robotic system and plate elevators. Data analysis, which is often a bottleneck in automated patch clamping, has been highly automated with the comprehensive QPatch Assay Software. The software is continually updated, based on input from Sophion’s customers.
Multi-hole technology increases success rates
One of the most important milestones in QPatch development was the multi-hole technology, launched in 2009 (QPatch 8X, 16X and HTX). This technology allows measurement of ion channel currents from up to 10 cells per recording site. These recordings lead to more efficient experi- ments and for instance makes experiments
Drug Discovery World Fall 2011
Sophion provides solutions Sophion does not only provide QPatch products. QCells, cell lines optimised for QPatch, ensure high experimental success rates with limited assay development effort. Sophion can provide most cell lines from major vendors optimised for QPatch, at competitive prices.
Over the years Sophion has generated unique knowledge about a large number of different patch clamp applications. It is part of Sophion’s strategy to put the public part of this knowledge at the disposal of its customers. This is done in application notes and through a close dialogue between Sophion’s customers and its 15 application scientists. Also the ever-popular QPatch user meetings play a major role in this knowledge exchange.
The future
Recently Sophion became part of Biolin Scientific, a Swedish materials science com- pany. The combined company will now be even better placed to continue innovation of the QPatch platform as well as developing exciting new products. In the near future Sophion will launch an upgrade package to QPatch that facilitates experiments based on stem cells and primary cells. This includes current clamp, smaller patch clamp hole sizes and features to reduce cell consumption. A 384-channel high throughput auto- mated patch clamp system providing very high-quality data based on true giga-seals will also soon be announced.
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with transiently transfected ion channels more feasible. The technology provides nearly 100% success rates and hence the highest possible throughput and the lowest possible price per data point. In recent work, high success rates on multi-hole experiments with iCells® Cardiomyocytes have also been demonstrated.
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