On July 19th, Prof. Jianmin Cui from Washington University in St. Louis visited BEBC and gave a talk entitled "Modulation of the slow K+ channel in heart". 

Jianmin Cui is a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from State University of New York at Stony Brook and a post-doctoral training at Stanford University. His research interests include mechanisms of ion channel function, ion channel associated diseases and discovering drugs that target ion channels.

IKs is a voltage activated potassium channel that is important to control heart rhythm. Mutations in the IKs channel proteins are associated with long QT syndrome that may result in sudden death of the inflicted patients. This talk showed that the activation of IKs channels not only depended on the membrane voltage but also required the binding of intracellular signaling molecules phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) and ATP. Electrophysiology, fluorescence, and pharmacological probes were used to study the mechanisms of IKs activation by voltage and ligands.