Whole-cell patch clamping involves bringing a hollow glass pipette in contact with the cell membrane of a neuron SPUTNIK ANIMATION AND MIT MCGOVERN INSTITUTE
THE DEVICE: Whole-cell patch clamping, a Nobel Prize-winning technique to record the electrical activity of neurons, has never looked so good. A shoebox-sized robot lowers a thin glass pipette, its tip sharpened to 1 micrometer in diameter, into the brain of an anesthetized mouse. The robot moves the pipette around inside the brain, almost imperceptibly, hunting for neurons. When the glass tip bumps into a neuron, the robot arm instantly halts and applies suction through the pipette to form a seal with the cell membrane. Once attached, the pipette tears a small hole in the membrane and records the cell’s internal electrical activity.
The automated process performs in vivo patch clamping faster and more accurately than manual patch clamping, which involves the physical manipulation of ...
