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SUMMARY:Ions in Solutions and Channels: the Plasma of Life
DTSTART:20161121T121500
DTSTAMP:20260916T220423Z
UID:b97dce68bb837c76b17e844e104cc5c3c339de9ac126822a29ff3093
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Robert S. Eisenberg\, Rush University\, Chicago\, IL (US
 A)\nDISTINGUISHED LECTURE IN BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING\n(sandwiches served)\n
 \nAbstract:\nBiology occurs in ionic solutions that are plasmas in both th
 e physical and biological meanings of the word. Ion channels are proteins 
 with a hole down their middle that conduct ions (spherical charges like Na
 + \, K+  \, Ca2+ \, and Cl-  with diameter ~ 0.2 nm) through a narr
 ow tunnel of fixed charge (‘doping’) with diameter ~ 0.6 nm. Ionic ch
 annels control the movement of electric charge and current across biologic
 al membranes and so play a role in biology as significant as the role of t
 ransistors in computers: almost every process in biology is controlled by 
 channels\, one way or the other. Ionic channels are manipulated with the p
 owerful techniques of molecular biology in hundreds of laboratories. Atoms
  (and thus charges) can be substituted a few at a time and the location of
  every atom can be determined in favorable cases. Ionic channels are one o
 f the few living systems of great importance whose natural biological func
 tion can be well described by a tractable set of equations. Ion channels c
 an be studied by Poisson‑Drift diffusion equations familiar in plasma an
 d semiconductor physics — called Poisson Nernst Planck or PNP in biolo
 gy. My collaborators and I have shown how the relevant equations can be de
 rived (almost) from stochastic differential equations\, and how they can b
 e solved in inverse\, variational\, and forward problems using models with
  only a handful of parameters that do not change even when concentrations 
 change by a factor of 107.\n\nBio:\nEducation:\nPhD\, University of London
 \nBA\, Harvard College\n\ncurrent appointment:\n\nThe Francis N. and Cathe
 rine O. Bard Professor of Physiology\, Emeritus\n\n\n\nDepartment of Molec
 ular Biophysics and Physiology\, Rush Medical College\, Chicago\, IL (USA)
 \n\n\nResearch Areas:\nion channels\, mathematical molecular biology
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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