Cold flux assays utilize tracer ions to study the ion channel of interest. The method of detection for Aurora Biomed’s cold flux assays is flame atomic absorption spectroscopy as employed by our proprietary Ion Channel Reader technology. The Ion Channel Reader Series provides a high throughput format for ion channel screening by the flux assay approach. The use of high throughput assays helps reduce the burden on electrophysiology by providing some idea of which compounds should be screened if resources are limited and not all compounds can be screened with manual-patch clamp. The cold flux assay approach is ideal for determining which compounds to follow up with electrophysiology as there is a strong linear correlation (R=0.88) and consistently identical drug rank orders between the two methods.
Aurora Biomed offers flux assay screening for a variety of ion channels (K+, Na+, Ca2+, and Cl-) and transporters.