Biophysics

Patch-clamp: theoretical foundations and practical application

July 1, 2006.

Lecturer

PhD. MILAN RADOŠ
Croatian Institute for Brain Research, Zagreb

Date and time

Wednesday, July 5, 2006 at 1:00 p.m.

Location

Lecture Hall, Wing I, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička 54, Zagreb

Abstract

The human brain is a system of exceptional structural complexity, made up of a huge number of nerve cells. Although the structure of the brain is relatively well known, we are still very far from answering the question of how this complicated system actually works. A significant step in understanding how our brain works occurred in the last century after electrophysiological methods were introduced into neuroscience that made it possible to study the “brain in action”. Namely, the living brain constantly generates electrical potentials, and that is why electrophysiological methods (which can be used to precisely record and analyze brain electrical activity) are crucial for understanding how the brain functions. Since the advent of EEG, it has been possible to record the combined electrical activity of a huge number of neurons, but it was only with the development of the patch-clamp method (still without a generally accepted Croatian term) that the possibility of very precisely recording all types of electrical potentials that occur on the membrane of an individual neuron (resting membrane potential, postsynaptic potential, action potential) was created. This method is technically very demanding because it requires very precise optical, mechanical and electrical equipment. However, some discoveries can only be made with this method (for example, that GABA is an "excitatory" neurotransmitter in the early stages of brain development), so its application is indispensable in any interdisciplinary neuroscientific research. To fully understand the possibilities and limitations of the patch-clamp method, it is necessary to know the basic physical laws of electrical circuits, as well as the basics of biological excitability, which will be discussed in my presentation.

*Colloquium of the Croatian Biophysical Society

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