Patch Clamp
The patch clamp technique was developed in 1976 by the Germans Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann, who received the Nobel Prize for their work in 1991. With this technique, a glass pipette with an extremely small opening is pressed against a cell membrane and suction is applied on the inside of the pipette to pull the cell's membrane into the tip of the pipette. The suction causes the cell to form a tight seal with the electrode (a so-called "gigaohm seal" or "Gigaseal", since the electrical resistance of that seal is in excess of a gigaohm). Next, more suction is applied to rupture the portion of the cell's membrane that is inside the pipette, thus providing access to the intracellular space of the cell. Consequently, the ion flow across the membrane and the resulting electrical current can be measured using an amplifier connected to the pipette.
Traditional patch clamp setup