Exploring the roles of endosomal potassium ion channels in viral infection and cellular physiology

内吞途径在细胞生理学中起核心作用，负责将细胞外物质和分子摄取到细胞中。它也是许多病毒进入细胞内部的途径。最近的工作已经确定，内体途径中的钾离子是许多不同病毒感染细胞所必需的。然而，负责将钾离子转运到内体的离子通道及其在正常细胞功能中的作用在很大程度上是未知的。在这个项目中，您将使用细胞器蛋白质组学来识别内体钾离子通道，然后研究它们在病毒感染和内吞途径中细胞蛋白质运输中的作用。这将涉及一系列技术，包括细胞和病毒培养，亚细胞分级分离，蛋白质组学，免疫荧光显微镜，活细胞显微镜和病毒感染测定。该项目的成果将不仅是识别病毒感染的新型细胞辅助因子，而且是对离子通道细胞功能的新理解。

The endocytic pathway plays a central role in cellular physiology, being responsible for the uptake of extracellular material and molecules into the cell. It is also the route used by many viruses to access the cell interior. Recent work has established that potassium ions in the endosomal pathway are required for the infection of cells by a number of different viruses. However, the ion channels responsible for transporting potassium ions into endosomes and their roles in normal cellular function are largely unknown. In this project you will use organelle proteomics to identify the endosomal potassium ion channels and then examine their role in viral infection and in the trafficking of cellular proteins in the endocytic pathway. This will involve an array of techniques including cell and virus culture, subcellular fractionation, proteomics, immunofluorescence microscopy, live cell microscopy and viral infection assays. The outcome of this project will not only be the identification of novel cellular co-factors for viral infection, but a new understanding of the cellular functions of ion channels.