Fifth-year graduate student Michael Sindoni (Grandl Lab) has a new first-author article out in Biophysical Journal titled, “A closed-loop system for millisecond readout and control of membrane tension.” In this work, Sindoni has developed a tool to further investigate how force-gated ion channels respond to membrane tension. This tool, named the Optically Guided Tension Clamp (OGTC), further develops the approach of combining patch-clamp electrophysiology and DIC microscopy into a fully automated system that uses machine learning to control membrane tension in real time with high precision.
The significance of this tool is twofold: first, it allows for obtaining tension-response curves instantaneously in an unbiased and highly precise fashion. Second, the OGTC clamps membrane tension without drift, which allows recording and averaging the activity of force-gated ion channels over long durations.
Read the full study in Biophysical Journal.