Join us to explore advanced techniques for interpreting complex SSME signals

Solid Supported Membrane Electrophysiology (SSME) is a powerful technique for studying electrogenic membrane proteins, yet its transient signal nature poses major interpretative challenges.

This webinar outlines a structured approach to understanding and dissecting these complex signals before drawing mechanistic conclusions. We begin with the foundational question: What does the signal actually reflect? — transport, substrate binding, conformational changes, interactions with the membrane or non-target proteins, or technical artifacts — often, it’s a combination. Our framework provides a systematic method to distinguish signal components and identify artifacts using assay condition analysis, control experiments, and kinetic signatures.

What you’ll learn:

• Initial data interpretation. How to distinguish true protein activity from background current and differentiate passive substrate binding (Pre-Steady-State, PSS) from active transport, using strategies like signal shape analysis, LPR variation, buffer composition changes, and selective inhibition.
• Analytical techniques to resolve complex, multi-component currents. We discuss multi-exponential decay fitting to identify kinetic phases in more detail. Additional tools such as current reconstruction, dose-response curve (DRC) comparisons, and signal deconvolution are presented as complementary approaches to parse overlapping kinetic processes.
• Deeper mechanistic challenge of assigning identified signal components to discrete steps in the transport cycle. We will show how kinetic modeling and simulation can link specific electrogenic events to transporter states, illustrated through case studies like GAT1 and SGLT1.

By the end, you'll have a practical guide for structured analysis, which enables more confident and mechanistic interpretation of SSME signals