An apparatus for sensing of an interaction of a molecular entity with amembrane protein in a lipid bilayer com-prisesan array of sensor elements (21) arranged to output an electrical signal thatis dependant on occurrences of the interaction.A detection circuit (3) comprised detection channels (30) capable ofamplifying an electrical signal from a sensor element. Moresensor elements (21) are provided than detection channels (30), and detectionchannels (30) are selectively connected to sensor el-ements (21)that have acceptable quality of performance in that a lipid bilayer is formedand that an acceptable number of mem-braneproteins are inserted, on the basis of the amplified electrical signals thatare output from the detection channels. This im-provesthe efficiency of utilisation of the detection channels, due to inefficiencyin the utilisation of the sensor elements, resultingin a reduction in the cost of the apparatus and the ability to perform sensingusing relatively small samples.
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