Patent ID: 9274099
Filing Date: 2016-03-01
CPC Classification: A61N,B01J,C40B,G01N

Claim Text:
1. A method for screening test drugs to identify their effects on cell membrane voltage-gated ion channel, the method comprising: a) contacting a mammalian cell with a test drug, wherein the cell: is genetically modified to express a heterologous, microbial light-responsive ChR2 ion channel comprising an amino acid sequence having at least 75% amino acid sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 1, wherein the heterologous ChR2 ion channel, when activated by light, results in a change in the voltage in the cell membrane; wherein the cell comprises: i) a voltage-gated ion channel that causes a change in the intracellular concentration of an ion in response to the light-induced change in voltage; and ii) an indicator that produces a fluorescent signal in response to a change in the intracellular concentration of the ion; b) activating the heterologous, microbial light responsive ChR2 ion channel with light; c) detecting a fluorescent signal produced by the indicator; processing data received from the indicator; and storing the processed data received from the indicator, wherein a change in the signal produced by the indicator in the presence of the test drug, compared to the signal produced in the absence of the test drug, indicates that the test drug is a candidate drug that affects the voltage-gated ion channel.