Ardem Patapoutian | May the Force be with you! Piezo channels in mechanosensory biology.

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Event details

Date 27.01.2025
Hour 14:1515:15
Speaker Ardem Patapoutian, Scripps Research, California, USA
Location
Category Conferences - Seminars
Event Language English
May the Force be with you!  Piezo channels in mechanosensory biology.
Ardem Patapoutian, Scripps Research, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Presidential Endowed Chair in Neurobiology, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021

Abstract
Mechanotransduction was perhaps the last major sensory modality not understood at the molecular level. Proteins/ion channels that sense mechanical force are postulated to play critical roles in sensing touch/pain (somatosensation), sound (hearing), shear stress (cardiovascular function), etc.; however, the identity of ion channels involved in sensing mechanical force had remained elusive. The Patapoutian lab identified PIEZO1 and PIEZO2, mechanically activated cation channels that are expressed in many mechanosensitive cell types. Genetic studies established that PIEZO2 is the principal mechanical transducer for touch, proprioception, baroreception, bladder, and lung stretch, and that PIEZO1 mediates blood-flow sensing, which impacts vascular development and iron homeostasis. Clinical investigations have confirmed the importance of these channels in human physiology. Current work in Patapoutian lab continues to explore the role of mechanosensation and interoception in physiology and disease.
 

Practical information

  • Informed public
  • Free

Organizer

  • Host: Mackenzie Mathis
    BMI Distinguished Seminar
    Life Sciences Seminar  

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