Thallium flux assays are the gold standard for fluorescence-based, high throughput screening of potassium channels. Thallium indicators offer an outstanding alternative to K⁺-sensitive and Na+-sensitive fluorescent indicators. It takes advantage of a Tl⁺-selective fluorescent indicator, Thallos AM, and the fact that potassium and sodium permeable channels and K⁺ and Na⁺ transporters readily accept Tl⁺ as a surrogate cation.
Our collection of thallium indicators and thallium flux assays are designed for FLIPR Potassium channel assays, and our kits provide all the reagents necessary for use as a washed or no-wash assay with adherent or non-adherent cells. In multi-well, plate-based formats, the Brilliant Thallium Assay has been used to discover and characterize the effects of many tens-of-thousands of compounds and environmental factors on effectors of Tl+ flux. Over the past 15 years, fluorescence-based measures of Tl+ flux have brought about the discovery of small-molecule modulators of a host of ion channels, transporters, GPCRs and other targets of interest for both drug discovery and basic research.
