CLEVELAND – Beginning next month, ChanTest Corporation will offer the highest throughput electrophysiology platform on the market validated for both voltage-gated (VGIC) and rapidly desensitizing ligand-gated ion channels (LGICs). LGICs typically are not well suited for automated platform assays but by using the first IonWorks Barracuda™ System ever sold by Molecular Devices, ChanTest adds even greater capacity to its state of the art screening operation. A unique, flow-through well design and rapid solution exchange rate allows for accurate automated LGIC screening.

The new system can generate more than 1,100 data points per hour and record from 384 wells simultaneously. As many as eight compounds also can be added during data collection. This can shorten experiment time-to-completion and help reduce the cost per data point. The flexible software also makes this system well suited for both assay development and screening applications.

“We continue to validate our assays on the IonWorks Barracuda system and are pleased with the capabilities this new system is bringing to our operation. The flow-through PatchPlate well, designed for rapid solution exchange, and the electrode plate array that allows compound addition during data acquisition are just two of the features that create efficiencies of scale for high-throughput assays,” said Dr. Arthur Brown, CSO and founder of ChanTest.

“ChanTest has always been dedicated to helping accelerate drug discovery efforts. We believe our customers have been waiting for this new automated capability, especially for LGIC drug targets, and we’re pleased to bring this new platform on-line to meet the unique requirements of our drug discovery clients,” said Thomas Oakley, president and CEO of ChanTest.

About ChanTest Corporation (www.chantest.com)

ChanTest’s mission is to serve the research, drug discovery and drug development needs of customers worldwide with high-value solutions for ion channel and GPCR biology. Since its inception in 1998, the company has tested compounds for more than 500 global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and partners with them to speed the drug development process for the release of better, safer drugs. ChanTest offers integrated ion channel and GPCR services (GLP and non-GLP) and reagents; the company’s library of validated ion channel cell lines and pre-clinical cardiac risk assessment service portfolio are the most comprehensive commercially available today. Because of ChanTest’s seminal role in the pre-clinical cardiac safety field, along with the company’s uncompromising commitment to quality, ChanTest has been named the “most trusted and most used fee-for-service provider” for ion channel screening in an independent survey for the past three years. ChanTest is based in Cleveland, Ohio. For more information, e-mail info@chantest.com.