The electrophysiology unit has two separate systems for:

1) Patch-clamp and ion imaging experiments
This system integrates a patch-clamp amplifier and a stimulation/data acquisition system with an antivibration table, micromanipulators, a fluorescence microscope, a high sensitivity digital camera, and a high-speed wavelength switcher.

This system allows:

• Biophysical and pharmacological characterization of ion channels
• Analysis of calcium signaling by fluorescent (Fluo-4, Fura-2, GCAMP5-G, PH-PLC-GFP, ER-GECO1) and photosensitive (caged-IP3) probes
• Extracellular and intracellular pH measurements by BCECF and SNARF-1

2) Epithelial electrophysiology experiments
The unit has an 8-channel and a 4-channel transepithelial voltage/current-clamp system for simultaneous recordings of multiple epithelia in parallel.

These systems allow:

• Characterization of epithelial ion transport mechanisms in normal and pathological epithelia
• Evaluation of pharmacological agents to rescue the basic defect in cystic fibrosis (CF)
• Recordings using nasal epithelia of CF patients with rare orphan mutations to identify personalized treatments