Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
School of Computer and Communication Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Gero Miesenböck
Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Rajnish Ranjan
Blue Brain Project, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Geneva, Switzerland
Tim P Vogels
Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Ion channel models are the building blocks of computational neuron models. Their biological fidelity is therefore crucial for the interpretation of simulations. However, the number of published models, and the lack of standardization, make the comparison of ion channel models with one another and with experimental data difficult. Here, we present a framework for the automated large-scale classification of ion channel models. Using annotated metadata and responses to a set of voltage-clamp protocols, we assigned 2378 models of voltage- and calcium-gated ion channels coded in NEURON to 211 clusters. The IonChannelGenealogy (ICGenealogy) web interface provides an interactive resource for the categorization of new and existing models and experimental recordings. It enables quantitative comparisons of simulated and/or measured ion channel kinetics, and facilitates field-wide standardization of experimentally-constrained modeling.
