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Robot Brings Patch-Clamping To the Masses
scibri writes about robots helping neuroscientists dig into the brains of (animal) test subjects. From the article: "Robots designed to perform whole-cell patch-clamping, a difficult but powerful method that allows neuroscientists to access neurons' internal electrical workings, could make the tricky technique commonplace. Scientists from MIT have designed a robot that can record electrical currents in up to 4 neurons in the brains of anesthetized mice (abstract) at once, and they hope to extend it to up to 100 at a time. The robot finds its target on the basis of characteristic changes in the electrical environment near neurons. Then, the device nicks the cell's membrane and seals itself around the tiny hole to access the neuron's contents."
This is cool, but alone it does not bring electrophysiology to anybody who did not already have it. The robot only handles the easiest part of the experiment--putting an electrode into a brain and sealing onto neurons is standard practice that most electrophysiologists learn with a few days of practice.
Generally the most difficult parts of these experiments are 1) surgery / dissection, 2) keeping your animal / slice alive, 3) _keeping_ the electrode attached to the cell, and 4) managing racks full of complex, noisy, temperamental equipment. It would probably speed up the process, particularly since the experimenter is free to do other things while the robot patches cells (like prepare new electrodes for the robot).
I saw it done in grad school, in Mexico. It definitely looked like it required serious ninja lab skills. On a grander scale, automating such tricky and delicate maneuvers will revolutionize all of the sciences. The great 20th century scientific techniques will be subsumed to an invisible stratum hidden inside machines. 21st century scientists will use those as building blocks and tools. They will each be standing on the shoulders of several generations of scientists. Unbelievably scary, unbelievably cool.