John Bankston
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Biophysics
Ion channels are tiny protein gates in cell membranes that open to let charged particles flow in or out. They sense signals such as voltage, acidity and chemical messengers, and they set how excitable nerve and heart cells are.
- Fields
Biophysics
Physiology
Neuroscience
- Topics
ion channels
ASIC1a
ASIC2b
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2030
What they work on
- Determine how single-tail lipids, including polyunsaturated fatty acids, lysophosphatidyl cholines and N-acyl amino acids, bind to ASIC3, an acid-sensing ion channel, and how they boost or open it.
- Use a single-molecule photobleaching method that counts fluorescent subunits to find how ASIC1a, ASIC2b and ASIC3 assemble into mixed channels in dorsal root ganglion sensory nerve cells.
- Identify how the C-linker of HCN4, the segment linking its cAMP-binding region to its pore, makes this heart and nerve channel unusually sensitive to ions, small molecules and partner proteins.
More about the research
Their behavior is tuned by surrounding membrane lipids (fats), partner proteins and how their subunits assemble. This research asks how two channel families are regulated: acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) and hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channels. Both are possible drug targets for stroke and pain.
Why it matters
ASICs and HCN channels shape pain sensing, heart rate and cell death after stroke. Finding where lipids, partner proteins and small molecules act on these channels could reveal new binding sites for drugs. This could eventually inform therapies for pain, stroke and heart rhythm conditions.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Gucan Dai
Saint Louis University, MO·Biophysics
Determine how the voltage-sensing domain of hyperpolarization-activated HCN pacemaker channels moves during activation, including its intermediate conformations, using patch-clamp fluorometry on channels expressed in human cell lines.
Valeria Vasquez
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX·Biophysics
Define how saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids in the membrane change the mechanical responses of mammalian mechanosensitive channels such as PIEZO, using functional studies.
Manu Ben Johny
Columbia University, NY·Biophysics
Determine whether CaV2.1 and CaV2.2 calcium channels are S-palmitoylated, carrying an attached lipid group, in central and peripheral neurons, and how this modification alters channel activity.
The school
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus: 41 labs on PI Pages, $766M a year on research, 205 research doctorates a year.
More about University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus
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