Naturally occurring calcium channels act as pores on the membranes of excitable cells, such as those found in nerves and muscles. The channels drive electrical activity by controlling the influx of ...

New research reveals how tiny electrical gates in the brain, known as NMDA receptors, control learning, memory, and neuron ...

Ion channels are pores in the membrane of cells or cell organelles. They allow positively or negatively charged particles, so-called ions, to be transported across the membrane. Biochemists at ...

Ion selectivity is an important property of cell membrane ion channels. For example, potassium ion channels are more permeable to potassium ions than to sodium ions. The mechanism underlying the ready ...

Ion channels are transmembrane proteins specifically involved with the transport of inorganic ions like Na+, K+, Ca2+, or Cl-. Ion channels are “gated”, i.e. they open in response to a specific ...

Ubiquitous in living organisms, potassium ion channels help provide energy to cells. In excitable cells such as neuron and muscle cells, the proteins also function to transmit signals from one part of ...

As information zings from cell to cell inside the brain, bursts of electricity spur its transmission. At Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), scientists have turned their attention to the tiny pores ...

Neurotoxins from cone snails and spiders help neurobiologists to investigate the function of ion channels in neurons. They have developed a system which for the first time allows the targeted, ...

Inspired by nature, an international research team has created synthetic pores that mimic the activity of cellular ion channels, which play a vital role in human health by severely restricting the ...

Ion channels, which allow potassium and sodium ions to flow in and out of cells, are crucial in neuronal 'firing' in the central nervous system and for brain and heart function. These channels use a ' ...

(Medical Xpress)—A research team with members from Cambridge University in the U.K. and Korea University College of Medicine, has found that a protein expressed in nematodes may also be responsible ...