How It Works: Patch Clamping

ILLUSTRATION: ANDREW MEEHAN

Feature Article

PER SVENNINGSSON and Nobel Prize winner PAUL GREENGARD describe how a single protein was found to link schizophrenia and depression to drugs of abuse and addiction.

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Aspects of ion channels can be studied, like all proteins, using molecular biological techniques but they are unique in that they can be observed, in groups or even individually, in the act of performing their function. The thrill of looking at a single ion channel protein at work is one of the great rewards of patch clamping. (For more on how this technology is progressing see "Patch-clamping unhooked," p. 72.)

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How It Works: Patch Clamping

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