Oral + Poster 9th Venoms to Drugs 2026

Automated Patch Clamp Electrophysiology as a Translational Bridge from Toxin Neutralization to in vivo Protection   (145503)

Anissa Bara 1 , Kim Boddum 1 , Melisa Benard Valle 2 , Samantha Nixon 3 4 , Sandra Zakrzewska 3 , Seil Jang 3 , Keli Huang 3 , Zhou Chen 3 5 , Daynen R Goss 6 , Elizabeth R Park 6 , Justine Du Bois 6 , Timothy P Jenkins 2 , Andreas H Laustsen-Kiel 2 , Daniel L Minor 3 , Damian Bell 1
  1. Sophion Bioscience A/S, Ballerup, Denmark
  2. Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
  3. Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
  4. Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
  5. Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
  6. Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

Venoms and biotoxins often exert their most devastating physiological effects by disrupting ion channels that control neuromuscular, sensory, and cardiac excitability. For toxin-neutralizing biologics, binding to the toxin is only part of the required characterization; a critical question is whether the candidate molecule restores ion-channel function at the physiological target.

Here, we present automated patch clamp (APC) electrophysiology as a platform for functional evaluation of toxin inhibition and rescue across multiple toxin-neutralization strategies. Using QPatch II and Qube 384 systems, APC assays enable quantitative measurement of toxin potency, concentration-dependent neutralization, cross-reactivity, and restoration of channel activity.

The poster highlights collaborator case studies spanning recombinant IgG antibodies, nanobodies, de novo designed binders, and saxiphilin toxin-sponge proteins. In snake α-neurotoxin studies, APC assays on muscle α1-nAChRs were used to evaluate neutralization of receptor inhibition by monoclonal antibodies and engineered binders. In saxitoxin (STX) studies, APC recordings demonstrated rescue of human NaV channel function by saxiphilin, aligning with in vivo protection and rescue from STX poisoning.

Across these studies, functional electrophysiological characterization of ion channel–toxin–binder interactions largely predicted the binders' ability to prevent lethality in vivo, demonstrating that APC provides a physiologically relevant translational readout for toxin research by directly assessing protection of ion-channel function, the endpoint most closely linked to toxin action.