Patent Document ID: 9668804
Application ID: 13676082
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for automated whole-cell patch clamping, comprising the steps of: regionally localizing a recording electrode of a cell patch clamping device, the recording electrode having a tip, by causing the tip of the recording electrode to be lowered to a predetermined depth for neuron hunting; iteratively lowering the tip of the recording electrode by a pre-set amount; measuring the resistance at the recording electrode tip after each iteration of the step of lowering; determining whether or not a target neuron has been encountered by constructing a temporal series of the resistance measurements after each iteration of the steps of lowering and measuring; iteratively continuing the steps of lowering, measuring, and determining until the temporal series of resistance measurements indicates monotonic increases in resistance over a threshold number of consecutive iterations and the increase in resistance over the measured temporal series is above a pre-set neuron detection threshold; stopping the iterative lowering of the recording electrode; initiating gigaseal formation; assessing whether or not gigaseal formation has been achieved; if gigaseal formation has been achieved, initiating break-in and formation of a whole-cell patch clamp; and verifying formation of the whole-cell patch clamp.