Discover why, Dr. Joseph Bruton, from Karolinska Institute decided to use the BioPen System
Dr. Joseph Bruton is senior researcher at Karolinska Institute. He is a physiologist, investigating how muscles adapt to training and to muscle pathology. He has a special interest in understanding the role of mitochondria in muscle fibers. He also occasionally works on exotic cells to assist and drive research within the department.
- What is the principal focus of your research? And why this field is important?
Muscle is my major focus. Ageing and disease often have people complaining of tiredness and fatigue. We accept this as natural although the mechanisms behind the symptoms are not understood. I am trying to clarify some of the mechanisms involved.
- Why did you choose the BioPen System?
I chose the BioPen System because I can target precise areas of the cell and see how local and global calcium changes in response to different perturbations. The small size of the area means that multiple sites can be examined in a single muscle cell.
- What are the advantages of the BioPen System?
The BioPen System has several advantages:
– small footprint on the lab bench,
– small target area, although this can be enlarged quite a bit,
– consumption of expensive antibodies and drugs is minimized compared to perfusion of the whole cell as we used to have to do.
- Do you use any other single-cell delivery system in your lab?
We microinject antibodies, other proteins and ion indicators into cells but we don’t have any system as the BioPen System to control the chemical environment of the cell.
- What was your initial experience using the BioPen System and how did this change with practice?
The BioPen System is very easy to use once your hand-eye coordination adapt to the BioPen and sample positions.
- Has Fluicell customer support been helpful?
Yes, I received support from Fluicell team before and after we bought the system. They have been very helpful.
- What are the next stages of your research?
Next stage in my research is to keep on discovering more about muscle adaptations to ageing and training.