Ideas for reducing electrophysiology setup costs?

[Genecks]

As listed here (http://www.wormbook.org/chapters/www_neuromuscularjunction/neuromuscularjunction.html), it can cost about $75,000 USD to start up an electrophysiology rig. However, what if person had the electrical engineering and mechanical engineering know how? Do you think production costs to create such an electrophysiology rig could be greatly reduced? If so, by how much?

Are the setup costs to be an electrophysiologists a barrier to entrance? Is that why equipment costs are so high? Or does it really cost that much to generate the electronics that electrophysiologists use?