News tagged with ion channels

Epilepsy sends differentiated neurons on the run

(Medical Xpress)—The smooth operation of the brain requires a certain robustness to fluctuations in its home within the body. At the same time, its extraordinary power derives from an activity structure ...

Neuroscience created Mar 29, 2013 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Mimicking the brain, in silicon: New computer chip models how neurons communicate

For decades, scientists have dreamed of building computer systems that could replicate the human brain’s talent for learning new tasks.

Neuroscience created Nov 15, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (13) | comments 18 | with audio podcast

An 'off' switch for pain: Chemists build light-controlled neural inhibitor

Pain? Just turn it off! It may sound like science fiction, but researchers based in Munich, Berkeley and Bordeaux have now succeeded in inhibiting pain-sensitive neurons on demand, in the laboratory. The crucial element in ...

Medical research created Feb 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists identify protein that sends 'painful touch' signals

In two landmark papers in the journal Nature this week, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute report that they have identified a class of proteins that detect "painful touch."

Medical research created Feb 19, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers illuminate link between sodium, calcium and heartbeat

Using the Canadian Light Source synchrotron, researchers from the University of British Columbia have revealed, for the first time, one of the molecular mechanisms that regulates the beating of heart cells by controlling ...

Medical research created Feb 13, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers target physiological factors that lead to asthma attack

A new study that identifies ways to reduce the factors that lead to an asthma attack gives hope to asthma sufferers. A UCSF researcher and his colleagues believe they have found a way to help asthma sufferers by impeding ...

Inflammatory disorders created Sep 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

How the body's energy molecule transmits three types of taste to the brain

Saying that the sense of taste is complicated is an understatement, that it is little understood, even more so. Exactly how cells transmit taste information to the brain for three out of the five primary ...

Medical research created Mar 06, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study finds linchpin of skin response to UVA light

Last year, a team of researchers at Brown University discovered that certain skin cells use a light-sensitive receptor found outside of the eye to sense ultraviolet light and quickly begin pumping out melanin ...

Medical research created Jan 21, 2013 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Smell the potassium: Surprising find in study of sex- and aggression-triggering vomeronasal organ

The vomeronasal organ (VNO) is one of evolution's most direct enforcers. From its niche within the nose in most land-based vertebrates, it detects pheromones and triggers corresponding basic-instinct behaviors, ...

Neuroscience created Jul 29, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (10) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Why a hereditary anemia is caused by genetic mutation in mechanically sensitive ion channel

A genetic mutation that alters the kinetics of an ion channel in red blood cells has been identified as the cause behind a hereditary anemia, according to a paper published this month in the Proceedings of the National Ac ...

Medical research created Mar 08, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study finds new pathway critical to heart arrhythmia

University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers have uncovered a previously unknown molecular pathway that is critical to understanding cardiac arrhythmia and other heart muscle problems. Understanding the basic science ...

Medical research created Oct 26, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Low-dose sedative alleviates autistic-like behavior in mice with Dravet syndrome mutation

A low dose of the sedative clonazepam alleviated autistic-like behavior in mice with a mutation that causes Dravet syndrome in humans, University of Washington researchers have shown.

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Aug 22, 2012 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

The sensation of cold is shut down by inflammation

(Medical Xpress) -- Research groups at the University of Cambridge and the Instituto de Neurociencias, in Spain, have discovered a new and unexpected mechanism by which cold sensation is regulated, and opens ...

Medical research created Jul 02, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Gene network restores CF protein function

Researchers at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine have discovered a genetic process that can restore function to a defective protein, which is the most common cause of cystic fibrosis (CF).

Genetics created Aug 01, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Discovery of hair-cell roots suggests the brain modulates sound sensitivity

The hair cells of the inner ear have a previously unknown "root" extension that may allow them to communicate with nerve cells and the brain to regulate sensitivity to sound vibrations and head position, researchers at the ...

Neuroscience created Mar 08, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Ion channel

Ion channels are pore-forming proteins that help establish and control the small voltage gradient across the plasma membrane of all living cells (see cell potential) by allowing the flow of ions down their electrochemical gradient. They are present in the membranes that surround all biological cells. The study of ion channels is known as channelomics and involves many scientific techniques such as voltage clamp electrophysiology (in particular patch clamp), immunohistochemistry, and RT-PCR.

For more information about Ion channel, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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Related topics: brain , cells , nerve cells , cell membrane