FLIPR Penta High-Throughput Cellular Screening System

What are the specific tasks that FLIPR can perform?

The FLIPR Penta is an industry-renowned instrument for monitoring GPCRs and ion channels. Specifically, the FLIPR Penta can:

1. Monitor GPCR activity and corresponding intracellular second messenger changes (Calcium and cAMP) using fluorescence and luminescence cell based assays
2. Observe real-time membrane potential changes associated with ion channel activation and ion transporter proteins
3. Observe calcium flux to assess cardiotoxicity in the early stages of drug discovery
4. Measure functional activity of ligand- and voltage-gated potassium channels
5. Measure the change of global intracellular calcium, in response to the activation of ion channels
6. Detect calcium oscillations in 3D cardiomyocyte and neuronal, providing a biologically relevant assay system to assess potential new pharmaceutical treatments and environmental toxins
7. Enable fast “inject and read” kinetic enzyme assays, increasing the throughput of biochemical assays compared to standard plate readers

What assays does FLIPR Penta support?

The FLIPR Penta System supports a wide range of assays, such as GPCR assays using FLIPR Calcium Assay Kits and Ion Channel assays using the FLIPR Membrane Potential Assay Kit, FLIPR Potassium Assay Kit, and FLIPR Calcium Assay Kit. Cardiomyocytes can also be used to evaluate compound effects earlier in the drug discovery process with the EarlyTox Cardiotoxicity Kit

What are the features of FLIPR’s new EMCCD camera?

With exclusive, configurable optics, the new HS EMCCD camera can capture up to 100 images per second and offers exceptional luminescence performance. We offer various LEDs and filters to provide a broad range of wavelengths, enabling multiple fluorescent dyes to be used. The LEDs and filters can be configured at the time of purchase or later, when assay needs change.

What are the benefits of FLIPR’s EarlyTox Cardiotoxicity Assay Kit?

The EarlyTox™ Cardiotoxicity Kit provides a fast, simple, and reliable fluorescence-based method for identifying cardiotoxic compounds in a biorelevant assay using stem-cell derived cardiomyocytes. Leveraging our proprietary masking technology with our novel calcium sensitive indicator, researchers can:

• Eliminate cardiotoxic compounds and identify potential drug candidates
• Measure 384 samples in minutes rather than hours
• Minimize non-specific effect of dye on beat characteristics
• Reduce well-to-well variation and improve data quality
• Largest signal dynamic range available
• Benchmark against three reference compounds: isoproterenol, sotalol and propranolol

Are there different variations of the FLIPR® Membrane Potential Assay Kits?

Molecular Devices has developed two different no-wash formulations of FLIPR Membrane Potential Assay Kits: Blue and Red. Each kit uses the same proprietary indicator dye, combined with different quencher to maximize cell line/channel/compound applicability while eliminating causes of variability in the data. Depending on the chemical properties of compounds in a library, differences in compound auto-fluorescence, or effect of dye on cell type or receptor, one kit may provide better response than the other. During assay development, optimal compound response can be empirically determined by testing both kits with a representative sample of the library to be screened. In this application note, CHL cells transfected with the cardiac Na_V1.5 channel are used to demonstrate differences in membrane potential assay functionality with tetrodotoxin and lidocaine and show optimization results with both the FLIPR Membrane Potential Red and Blue Assay Kits on the FLIPR Penta^® System.

What is the flipr thallium assay? What Assay kit is compatible with this assay?

The FLIPR Potassium Assay Kit exploits the permeability of thallium ions (Tl+) through both voltage- and ligand-gated potassium (K+) channels. In this assay, a novel, highly-sensitive Tl+indicator dye is utilized which produces a bright fluorescent signal upon the binding to Tl+conducted through potassium channels.