Underlying every thought, heartbeat and movement are ion channels, busily conducting high-speed streams of ions into cells, like subway trains coursing through tunnels. Ion channels span the cellular ...

Potassium channels can become nonconducting via inactivation at a gate inside the highly conserved selectivity filter (SF) region near the extracellular side of the membrane. In certain ligand-gated ...

Intrigued by the properties of ion channel proteins commonly observed in cells, researchers have developed the first synthetic mechanosensitive potassium channel using a newly developed aromatic ...

Ion channels in the nervous system are among the most important targets for insecticides. Understanding the structure of the channels is key for the identification of novel species-specific binding ...

Researchers decipher the function of an ion channel involved in cellular degradation processes and create new possibilities for Parkinson’s therapies.

Researchers have discovered a new mechanism for potassium channel inhibitor entry, which could improve the specificity of drugs targeting the channel. Upon binding to calcium ions, BK channels allow ...

For this article, author Jennifer Fisher Wilson interviewed Roderick MacKinnon, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology and Biophysics at ...

Ion selectivity is an important property of cell membrane ion channels. For example, potassium ion channels are more permeable to potassium ions than to sodium ions. The mechanism underlying the ready ...