Henry’s EP Suite

The migration of electrophysiology software available in the 1970s, designed around the simple PCs and operating systems then available, to the sophisticated, multi-tasking platforms in use today has been problematical. Indeed, many leading research institutions are still using effectively obsolete, DOS-based software: commercially available packages are expensive and generally dedicated to specific hardware, whilst much of the freeware published by academics – although scientifically robust – does not generally work efficiently with GUI-based platforms such as Microsoft® Windows™. However, Henry’s EP Suite has been developed, from its inception, as full-featured, GUI-based software that is both extremely efficient and user-friendly.

The data-acquisition and clamp-control aspects were originally designed around Scientific Solutions' LabMaster DMA board; however, driver modules are now available for the newer, PCI-based LabMaster PRO and a variety of other ADC/DAC interfaces, and the software can be configured to work with many types of amplifier/clamp-control hardware, such as the Dagan PC-ONE system and Axon's GeneClamp 500B and AxoClamp 2B.

As well as the primary, clamp-control and data acquisition/analysis application, “Henry,” the package also includes “N-Pro,” an application for improving signal-to-noise ratios in data-sets collected within the suite and with a wide variety of third-party software, and a virtual chart-recorder, “Vicar.” An on-going, ‘developmental’ application, “Pandora!” is also included, which contains an ever-increasing collection of tools for the analysis of single-channel (patch-clamp) data, as well as a variety of I:V modelling tools; but, please bear in mind that this program is not yet complete and many of the features are not fully functional. Comments and suggestions on this module are very welcome and much appreciated.

The “Henry” application has the ability to acquire images and/or spectrographic data, synchronised with clamp-control and electrophysiological data collection. To use this feature, your computer must have the SIDX interface — available from the Bruxton Corporation — installed, and you must have one of the (many) supported CCD devices fitted. Although it's still very new, we hope you will find this latest addition to the software exciting and useful, and (as ever) your feedback is very much appreciated!

Download and Installation

In order to install the software, your computer must have a Pentium II (preferably a Pentium IV) or better CPU and be running Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, Vista or "7" (you'll need Administrator rights to install the package). Click on the relevant icon below to either download or run the installation program. (Users of 64-Bit versions of Windows should see the notes below!) Note: The Windows-98/ME platforms (long since declared obsolete by Microsoft) are no longer supported.

Click to download or run the EP Suite setup program for 32-bit Windows (27 MB):

Click to download or run the EP Suite setup program for 64-bit Windows (32 MB):

Click to download the example file(s) for synchronized image acquisition (45 MB):

Windows 64-Bit Versions: Although the EP Suite software and its associated components have been built to run in these environments, we have only recently acquired a system in the laboratory on which to test it: thus, you should do this with the “at your own risk” philosophy in mind! However, please let us know of any problems you encounter, and we shall endeavour to correct them as expediently as possible.

Please Note: If you have Henry II's EP Suite (i.e. the software prior to V-3.0) installed, you are strongly advised to uninstall it before running the above setup program. Also, you should delete any Y-Science device drivers (via the “Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager” in Windows), but make a note of the ADC Board/Rig settings in the Henry application before doing this. If you have an installation of Henry's EP Suite later than V-3.0, you can simply use the above installation programs to update your software and device drivers; the current release is V-3.5.5.5 (Spring, 2012).

Terms of Use

Henry's EP Suite is available free of charge and does not require a licence; however, when publishing data collected or analyses made using the software, you should cite the following:

Blatt, M.R. (1987) Electrical Characteristics of Stomatal Guard Cells: The Contribution of ATP-Dependent “Electrogenic” Transport Revealed by Current-Voltage and Difference-Current-Voltage Analysis. J. Membrane Biol. 98:257-74.

Hills, A. and Volkov, V. (2004) Electrophysiology Equipment and Software. In: Membrane Transport in Plants, Blatt, M.R., Ed., Annual Plant Reviews, v. 15, pp. 40-71.

The Y-Science ADC/DAC Board Drivers

The Y-Science ADC/DAC Board Drivers provide the means by which the component applications of Henry’s EP Suite communicate with and control the installed ADC/DAC hardware in your PC. They are designed to present an identical interface to the software, irrespective of the particular hardware model in use; these drivers are system components that adhere to the Windows Driver Model (wdm) scheme; as such, they are fully compatible the following Windows operating systems: Windows XP, Vista and "7"; they will not run under Windows 95/98/ME and Windows NT4. For more information on the Y-Science ADC/DAC Board Drivers, click here.

Note: Henry’s EP Suite applications will not (yet) work with manufacturer-supplied drivers;
        we are currently exploring a route by which both can be used on the same system.

Complete Solutions

Working closely with Scientific Solutions Inc. (the makers of the excellent LabMaster boards), we can now supply laboratories with complete, ready-to-use electrophysiology rigs, from as little as US $7,000: this would include a patch-clamp/amplifier, data acquisition interface, the necessary connecting cables, Henry's EP Suite software and (optionally) a personal visit to help with setting up and calibrating your equipment. Click here for more details on our complete solutions.