“…Automated patch clamp assays have been successfully used in a number of drug discovery programs, both for identifying compound effects on ion channel targets as well as for identifying undesired off-target effects. Technical advances in the automated patch clamp technique and in cell preparations have facilitated employing automated patch clamp assays with increasing success rates (Finkel et al, 2006; Zeng et al, 2008), high parallelization (and, consequently, increased throughput), at (or near) physiological temperature (Polonchuk, 2012), at increased ligand application rates, and also using more challenging cell preparations such as primary cells on these instruments (Farre et al, 2009; Jones et al, 2009; Milligan et al, 2009; Golden et al, 2011; Stoelzle et al, 2011a,b; Haythornthwaite et al, 2012; Becker et al, 2013; Gillie et al, 2013; Milligan and Möller, 2013). The development of higher throughput automated patch clamp instruments has allowed moving electrophysiological ion channel assays earlier into the drug discovery process and has made electrophysiology measurements compatible with medicinal chemistry iteration cycles.…”