Welcome:

The Ion Channel Research Unit aims to bring together a multi-disciplinary group of researchers, without departmental boundaries, who focus on membrane excitability/bioelectricity to address diseases caused by defects in ion channel function.

An ever-increasing number of disorders, such cardiac arrhythmias, epilepsy, ataxias, migraines, diabetes, and end-stage renal disease, are attributable to ion channel dysfunction. Because specific ion channels expressed in one tissue are identical or similar to ion channels expressed in another tissue, these apparently disparate “channelopathies” often share certain features. For example, mutations in the retinal Ca2+ channel cause night blindness, and defects in a homologous Ca2+ channel expressed in multiple tissues result in a multi-system disorder including cognitive abnormalities, hyperglycemia, cardiac arrhythmias, and developmental defects. Investigation of one type of ion channel from multiple perspectives can thus catalyze efforts to understand a range of channelopathies. »» more