The importance of K+ leak currents to resting membrane potential and neuronal function was first proposed in the original Hodgkin-Huxley model of action potential generation10. The continuous efflux of K+ ions across the cell membrane is essential for setting a hyperpolarised resting cell membrane potential and directly influences the likelihood, duration and frequency of action potential firings1112. However, it was not until the late 1990’s, and the discovery of the two-pore domain (K2P) potassium channels1314, that the ion channels responsible for generating background leak K+ currents were identified. K2P channels are characterised by the presence of two pore forming regions and four trans-membrane spanning (4TMS) regions in each channel subunit and unlike other classes of K+ channels form functional dimers (not tetramers). Typically these channels elicit spontaneously active, outwardly rectifying ‘background leak’ type K+ conductances and show no classical time-dependent or voltage-dependent activity111516171819.