Pless Lab
The primary focus of our group is to understand the function and pharmacology of physiologically relevant ion channels. A secondary focus is the development of chemical biology tools to study membrane proteins. Together, this will allow future targeting of these proteins with high precision.
How do ions cross cell membranes? This question is key to understanding how muscles move our body, how the heartbeats and how hormones are secreted – all these processes are mediated by ion channels. These are membrane proteins that allow ions to cross membranes in response to a range of stimuli, such as neurotransmitters, membrane voltage, heat or stretch. We study their function and pharmacology using electrophysiology, chemical biology, protein engineering and spectroscopy. Our work aids both the basic understanding of these proteins, as well as our ability to target them pharmacologically.
- Borg & Braun et al., PNAS, 2020
- Chua et al., Science Advances (in press)
- Khoo & Galleano et al., bioRxiv
