Ionera

About Ionera

Ionera is a spin-off project from the University of Freiburg, Germany and was founded in 2014.

Ionera is commercializing a proprietary Multielectrode Cavity Array (MECA) technology for parallel bilayer recording.

This technology has been jointly developed in the labs of Prof. Dr. Jan C. Behrends (Department of Physiology) and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rühe (Department of Microsystems Technology) of the University of Freiburg.

Ionera's MECA products have successfully been used to study a whole range of channel forming entities.

Our MECA technology combines a reliable and simple membrane formation with the flexibility to employ all common reconstitution techniques.

While each single case requires special conditions for the perfect recording, the result is always the same:

MECA users get high quality in a fast and reliable manner!

Reconstitution via detergent dilution (e.g. bacterial porins, VDAC)

Beta-barrel membrane proteins, such as bacterial porins solubilized in non-ionic detergents can be directly incorporated into a bilayer array from detergent micelles. Predilution of the purified protein sample in detergent in concentration close to the detergents CMC followed by rapid dilution into the recording chamber results in incorporation of proteins into membranes. Concentration of the protein stock solution and dilution factor must be optimized to improve the rate of single channel insertions and minimize influence of the detergent on the membrane.

Fusion of proteoliposomes and native membrane vesicles

For electrophysiological recordings ion channels may be reconstituted from unilamellar proteoliposomes or native membrane vesicles which are fused with the planar bilayers. Osmotically induced swelling of the proteoliposomes or native membrane vesicles in immediate proximity of the lipid bilayer, as well as presence of charged lipids facilitate the protein incorporation.

Transfer from Nanodiscs

Ion channels can be transferred from nanodiscs into lipid bilayers on the MECA chip.

Lipids and lipid mixtures tested for bilayer formation

We have used and tested various lipids and lipid mixtures for bilayer formation on the MECA4 and MECA16 chips.

Recommended lipids:

DPhPC*

POPC*

DOPC*

Asolectin*

eggPC*

oxidized cholesterol

*Up to 30% cholesterol or ergosterol can be added

Lipid mixtures:

POPE:POPG (3:1)

POPE:POPS 1:1

POPC:POPE:POPG (or POPS)

DPhPC:DPhPC-NTA (3%):DPhPhosphate(10%)

DPhPC:DOTAP

POPE:POPG:TDM

Note: 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-(PO) can be substituted by 1,2-dioleoyl (DO) (and vice versa)