CellSpecks: A Software for Automated Detection and Analysis of Calcium Channels in Live Cells (Biophysical Journal)

To couple the fidelity of patch-clamp recording with a more high-throughput screening capability, we pioneered a novel approach to single channel recording that we named `optical patch clamp`. By using highly-sensitive fluorescent Ca2+ indicator dyes in conjunction with total internal fluorescence microscopy techniques, we monitor Ca2+ flux through individual Ca2+-permeable channels. This approach provides information about channel gating analogous to patch-clamp recording at time resolution of ~ 2 ms, with the additional advantage of being massively parallel, providing simultaneous and independent recording from thousands of channels in native environment.