Molecular Devices, at SLAS 2015, launched a homogeneous, no-wash assay to measure ligand- and voltage-gated potassium channel activity. The FLIPR® Potassium Assay Kit uses a novel thallium-sensitive indicator dye and a masking agent to significantly widen the conventional assay window, enabling studies of channels with low conductance or low expression levels. The kit's protocol eliminates the customary wash steps that introduce artificial variation and limit high-throughput automation.
Current thallium-based potassium ion channel assays require multiple buffer or media replacements, making them slow and cumbersome, and prone to well-to-well variation. Pervasive background noise also undermines accurate assessment of the small signals generated by many low-conductance channels or low-expressing cell lines.
The FLIPR Potassium Assay Kit directly measures potassium channel function using a thallium-sensitive indicator dye that passively diffuses into cells as an acetoxymethyl ester. Cytoplasmic esterases cleave the dye into its fluorogenic form. A proprietary masking agent further reduces the background ...
