Automated whole cell patch clamping has allowed for the rapid and repeatable study of individual ion channels for drug developers and drug safety in the pharmacological industry. There is great potential for direct application of these methodologies to emerging threat compound(s) risk assessment. The objective of this research opportunity is to create or adapt methodologies currently in use by Pharma and other drug development pipelines, and optimize these methods for rapid toxicological assessment of chemical warfare agents and threat compounds. A successful proposal will incorporate expertise of electrophysiology, manual or automated, to accomplish the task of characterizing the effects of threat agents on ion channel receptor targets, be it through agonism, antagonism, or direct/indirect modulation.