Ion channels are integral membrane proteins that catalyze the flux of ions across cell membranes, and play fundamental roles in a wide variety of functions throughout the body. In this post-genomic ...

A member of an important class of ion channel proteins can transiently rearrange itself into a larger structure with dramatically altered properties, according to a new study. The discovery is a ...

Ion channels are attractive drug targets due to their importance in health and disease, but finding ways to target a specific ion channel selectively is a major challenge. Now, researchers have ...

Researchers at Leipzig University and TU Dresden have succeeded in developing biological switches that can selectively turn ion channels on and off using light pulses. Initial applications show that ...

Cells send electrical impulses throughout the body, but electrophysiologists struggled to tune into these signals until the patch clamp technique was developed. Although biophysicist Bernard Katz from ...

Despite being only a few nanometers in size, they are of fundamental importance for biological processes: Ion channels allow essential ions such as potassium and sodium to enter and leave our cells.

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 ...

Researchers have discovered how an ion channel in the brain's neurons has a kind of 'molecular memory', which contributes to the formation and preservation of lifelong memories. The researchers have ...