Potassium Channels: Biophysical and Molecular Studies

钾通道是一组主要的内在膜蛋白，在神经系统中产生和编码信号以将环境信息转换为大脑理解的语言是基本的。大脑执行各种不同的功能，因此需要大量的编码机制。为了提供这一功能，神经系统发展了各种钾通道，每种类型都有与其功能相关的特定结构和生物物理特性。为了分析这种多样性，导致这些通道结构多样性的基因正在被识别和分离，以便重新插入到简单的模型系统中，即青蛙的卵母细胞，在那里它们可以被分离并在没有完整神经系统的复杂功能的情况下进行研究，这通常会使研究复杂化。这个项目探索了一种钾通道的结构和功能，这种通道已经在高等动物和人类中被发现，但其功能尚不清楚。

Potassium channels are one of the main groups of intrinsic membrane proteins which are fundamental for the generation and coding of signals in the nervous system to convert environmental information into a language understood by the brain. The brain carries out a variety of distinct functions and, as such, requires a large number of coding mechanisms. To provide for this the nervous system has developed a variety of potassium channels, each type with specific structural and biophysical properties related to its function. To analyze this diversity, genes that give rise to the large structural diversity of these channels are being identified and isolated to be reinserted into simple model systems, i.e., oocytes (egg) of the frog, where they can be isolated and studied in the absence of the complex functions of the intact nervous system which normally complicates their study. This project explores the structure and function of one type potassium channel that has been identified in higher animals and humans but whose function is not known.