Development of a Dual Arm Microrobot for Electrophysiological Recording

Patch clamp is an essential technique for studying cellular properties by ion channel currents. However, the issue of coupled cells recordings remains a challenge. In this paper, we have developed a dual arm microrobot for automated performing synchronized electrophysiological recording of coupled cells. The microrobot is actuated by micromanipulator and patch clamp. Each arm has one time-synchronized measurement channel to independently implement electrophysiological recording. The recording processes are algorithmically controlled by our predictive model. Based on the physiological characterizations of ion channels and synapses, we have designed protocols for the microrobot to collect recordings. The protocols consist of voltage clamp of step, voltage clamp of pulse and current clamp of pulse. We propose blocking rate, jitter, and current index to illustrate synaptic transmission direction, and evaluate synaptic performance within a framing of computationalization. To validate the ability of the dual arm microrobot, HEK 293 cells were cultured into coupled cells and uncoupled cells to carry out the experiments. With the protocols, we demonstrate the developed system can be utilized to indicate the properties of synapse fast and convenient. The integration of computational and mathematical approaches provides a key insight into evaluating synaptic performance. © 2022 IEEE.