Miniaturised electronics for fastest measurements of ion channel proteins

Researchers at Columbia Engineering have used miniaturised electronics to measure the activity of individual ion-channel proteins with temporal resolution as fine as one microsecond, producing the fastest recordings of single ion channels ever performed.

Ion channels are biomolecules that allow charged atoms to flow in and out of cells, and they are an important work-horse in cell signalling, sensing and energetics. They are also being explored for nanopore sequencing applications. As the ‘transistors’ of living systems, they are the target of many drugs, and the ability to perform such fast measurements of these proteins will lead to new understanding of their functions.

The miniaturisation of electronics continues to create capabilities in computer and communications applications, enabling handheld wireless devices with tremendous computing performance operating on battery power. This same miniaturisation of electronic systems is also creating new opportunities in biotechnology and biophysics.

The researchers have designed a custom integrated circuit to perform these measurements, in which an artificial cell membrane and ion channel are attached directly to the surface of the amplifier chip.

“Scientists have been measuring single ion channels using large rackmount electronic systems for the last 30 years,” says Jacob Rosenstein, the lead author on the paper. The results are described in a paper published online 1 May 2013, in Nano Letters.