QT-Systems

Introduction

Screening of large numbers of drug candidates for possible QT prolongation in the electrocardiogram by standard electrophysiological methods is one of the major bottlenecks in current safety pharmacology.
The technique of using microelectrode arrays represent an innovative way to reveal action potential data from cardiac myocytes, cultivated directly on a chip.
This method allows cultivation and recording on the same device.

 

Whereas patch-clamp and intracellular recordings are invasive methods requiring a breaking or penetrating of the membrane, extracellular recording brings the electrode just close to the membrane. This can be done with single electrodes or with an array of electrodes.The advantages of the microelectrode array technology, which is well established as measuring system in the field of neurobiology for years now has been enhanced for the QT-Screen.