About the Project

Patch-Clamp recordings allow for in depth electrophysiological characterization of single cells, their general biophysical properties as well as characteristics of voltage- and ligand-gated ionic currents. Different acquisition modes, such as whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in the current or voltage clamp configuration, capacitance measurements or single channel recordings from cultured cells as well as acute brain slices are routinely performed for these purposes. Nevertheless, multipurpose transparent and adaptable software tools to perform reproducible state-of-the-art analysis of multiple experiment types and to manage larger sets of experimental data are currently unavailable. We therefore developed Biophysical Essentials (BPE) as an open-source python software for transparent and reproducible analysis of electrophysiological recordings. While initially designed to improve time consuming and repetitive analysis steps, BPE was optimized to cover entire workflows from data acquisition, preprocessing, visualization and normalization of single recordings up to stacked calculations and statistics of multiple experiments. BPE can operate with differen file formats from different amplifier systems and producers, such as Heka and Axon. An in-process SQL OLAP DuckDB database logs all analysis steps for later review and was also conceived to serve as a central storage point for recordings. Through BPE's graphical user interface, all raw data, database entries, analysis parameters and results are properly visualized and allow maximum control of data and quality. Additional statistical testing options as well as advanced analysis functions like Boltzmann-fitting and dimensional reduction methods further support the researchers' needs in projects involving electrophysiology techniques and analyses.