BMI Progress Reports 2021 // Prof. Markram's Lab: Rajnish Ranjan - Kinetic characterization of voltage-gated ion channels - A case study on HCN channels

Voltage-gated ion channels (VGICs) are membrane proteins that selectively allow ions to pass through the membrane, creating an electrical potential across the cell membrane. Although VGIC genes were fully sequenced decades ago, a comprehensive kinetic characterization of VGICs is still missing, especially near physiological temperature. VGICs kinetic data is key to the understanding of excitable cell physiology and is considered among the essential data needed for the biophysically detailed neuron modelling.
Therefore, we have been systematically characterizing the kinetic properties of VGICs across different temperatures and in this talk I will present the key findings from patch-clamp recordings of main VGICs (Kv, Kir, K2P, HCN, Nav, Cav) and as a case study the detailed kinetic characterization of HCN channels across temperatures, species and known modulators (cAMP and ZD7288).