Ion channels are controlled by voltage and by a variety of intracellular kinases and phosphatases. A major focus of the lab is the study of a family of Ca channels with expression restricted to fetal heart and diseased adult cardiac myocytes. The same Ca ions that pass through Ca channels are one of the most important regulators of Ca channels. A major new effort in my lab is to understand the signal transduction pathways involved in regulation of Ca channels in heart cells. A second focus in the lab is on the ion channel itself.
Ion channels are large molecules with multiple functional domains.
Our goal is to understand molecular structure-function relationships of the channel. Ca Current in Developing Mouse Heart. Calcium Channel Permeation is Regulated by Internal Monovalent Cations. Molecular Identification and Functional Characterization of A Splice Variant of T-type Calcium Channel in Atrial Myocytes. Arachidonic Acid Modulation of a 1H, A Cloned Human T-type Calcium Channel.