Specialist Ion Channel Screening
Accelerate early-stage screening and lead optimisation
Fully customised ion channel assays
We understand the importance of robust, reliable assays in enabling you to make timely, well-informed decisions. Using innovative solutions tailored to your specific target, we focus on rapid delivery of high-quality data to accelerate your early-stage compound screening and lead optimisation programmes.
Our specialist team of ion channel scientists are experts in their field. With over 250 years’ collective ion channel drug discovery experience, we specialise in developing, optimising and validating high-quality ion channel screening services using a range of electrophysiology and fluorescence-based platforms.
We fully customise ion channel assays at different stages of the screening cascade, from high-throughput screening (HTS) and structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies, through to specialised biophysical and mechanism-of-action studies for lead compounds.
Reliable data you can trust
Our expertise in electrophysiology and fluorescence-based platforms is what stands us apart, ensuring you receive robust and reliable data.
We strive to exceed our clients’ expectations and to build long-term partnerships based on trust:
- High quality, cost-efficient compound screening.
- Rapid reporting and data interpretation by experienced ion channel experts.
- Tailored, target-focussed assay development, including complex assays.
- In-house generation and validation of novel ion channel cell lines.
- Detailed characterisation of lead compounds in a range of complementary assays.
- Translational services including confirmation of efficacy.
- Access to commercially available compound libraries (Assay.Works and Enamine) with freedom to operate.
Technologies we use for ion channel screening
State-of-the-art technology is employed to deliver high quality data supported by the latest liquid handling capabilities.
Electrophysiology:
- Qube 384
- QPatch-48 (x2) and QPatch-II
- Volta
- Patchliner automated electrophysiology
- Conventional manual patch clamp electrophysiology
- Plate-based impedance and microelectrode array techniques
Fluorescence and luminescence:
- FLIPR® Penta
- FLEXStation III
Liquid handling:
- Agilent Bravo BenchCel WorkStation
- Tecan D300e
Metrion’s Ion Channel Screening Resource library
Ion Channel Screening ResourcesPublications
- Ion Channel Drug Discovery and Modern Medicine.
- Ion Channel Discovery – Partnering to Access Specialized Expertise.
- Recent advances in electrophysiology-based screening technology and the impact upon ion channel discovery research.
- Clathrodin, hymenidin and oroidin, and their synthetic analogues as inhibitors of the voltage-gated potassium channels.
- Novel K+ Channel Targets in Atrial Fibrillation Drug Development – Where Are We?
- Human Electrophysiological and Pharmacological Properties of XEN-D0101: A Novel Atrial-Selective Kv1.5/IKur Inhibitor.
Videos and Presentations
- Designing multiple assay protocols for ligand gated ion channels using the stacked-tip feature on the Patchliner and SP384i platforms
- The benefits of targeting ion channels for pain and some of the hurdles in developing successful ion channel modulators.
Posters
- Identification of Novel Scorpion Venom Peptide Inhibitors of the Kv1.3 Ion Channel and their Potential as Drug Discovery Leads for Human T-Cell Mediated Disease.
- The development of a set of novel small molecule inhibitors of the Kv1.3 ion channel.
- A drug discovery collaboration between Japanese pharma and a UK SME CRO successfully developed novel small molecule inhibitors of the Kv1.3 channel to treat autoimmune disease.
Application notes and resources
- ASIC1a Ligand Gated Ion Channel Assay (App Note)
- Investigating the correlation between thallium flux and automated patch-clamp for ion channel activators.
- Identification of novel ion-channel binders: TRPA1 antagonist case study.
- The development of a set of novel small molecule inhibitors of the Kv1.3 ion channel.
Cardiac Safety Screening Resources- Cross-site and cross-platform variability of automated patch clamp assessments of drug effects on human cardiac currents in recombinant cells.
- A systematic strategy for estimating hERG block potency and its implications in a new cardiac safety paradigm
- The Nav 1.5 Late Current in WT and Nav 1.5 ΔKPQ Mutant Channels: An Automated Patch Clamp LQT3 Electrophysiological Assay Comparison. Safety Pharmacology Society Virtual Meeting 2020.
- NaV1.5-ΔKPQ late INa current properties and pharmacology on the SyncroPatch 384i
Neuroscience Resources- Recent advances in targeting ion channels to treat chronic pain.
- Marc Rogers (Metrion Director and Former CSO) takes part in a collaborative webinar with Nanion Technologies entitled “Validation and optimization of automated patch clamp voltage-gated Ca2+ channel assays”.
- Open access to the KCNQ channel: Retigabine and second generation M-current openers.
- Development of native and stem cell-derived electrophysiological assays for neurotoxicology screening and translational drug discovery
- Characterization of Endogenous Sodium Channels in the ND7-23 Neuroblastoma Cell Line: Implications for Use as a Heterologous Ion Channel Expression System Suitable for Automated Patch Clamp Screening.
- Optimising a difficult Nav1.8 cell line assay for automated patch clamp screening. Ion Channel Retreat, Vancouver, 2015
- Synthesis and biological evaluation of piperazine derivatives as novel isoform selective voltage-gated sodium (Nav) 1.3 channel modulators
- Action of Clathrodin and Analogues on Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels
- Novel state-dependent voltage-gated sodium channel modulators, based on marine alkaloids from Agelas sponges
- Ligand- and structure-based virtual screening for clathrodin-derived human voltage-gated sodium channel modulators
Translational Assay Resources- The role of Nav1.7 in human nociceptors: insights from human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived sensory neurons of erythromelalgia patients
- Assessment of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for evaluating drug-induced arrhythmias with multi-electrode array
- Development of an impedance based screening assay for cardiac safety and cardiotoxicity detection in stem cell derived cardiomyocytes
- Validation of an impedance-based phenotypic screening assay able to detect multiple mechanisms of chronic cardiotoxicity in human stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes
- Electrophysiological characterisation of Cellular Dynamics International ventricular iCell2 iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes
- Functional characterisation of human iPSC-derived atrial cardiomyocytes
Let’s work together
What are your specific ion channel screening requirements?
If you have any questions, or would like to discuss your project, we will put you directly in touch with a member of our scientific team. Contact us today to discover more.