Ion Gating Porous Membrane

Membrane mechanics as a probe of ion-channel gating mechanisms.

The details of conformational changes undergone by transmembrane ion channels in response to stimuli, such as electric fields and membrane tension, remain controversial. We approach this problem by considering how the conformational changes impose deformations in the lipid bilayer. We focus on the role of bilayer deformations in the context of voltage-gated channels because we hypothesize that ...

Capturing Ion Channel Gating

This is a golden age for ion channels: a time when chemistry, molecular biology, and electrophysiology have come together with structural biology to provide glimpses into some truly amazing membrane proteins. And yet, as usual, the answers yield more questions. Is a new structure the structure of an open channel or of a closed one? How does the voltage sensor actually move? Though providing ama...

Artificial membrane excitability revisited and implications for the gating of voltage-dependent ion channels.

Excitability phenomena in planar lipid bilayers doped with alamethicin and protamines have been first described by Mueller and Rudin (Nature 217, 713-719, 1968). These properties are reinvestigated here with virtually solvent-free bilayers made of synthetic phospholipids doped with alamethicin charged component (Glu18) and protamine or other synthetic basic polypeptides. After retrieving the na...

A smart temperature and magnetic-responsive gating carbon nanotube membrane for ion and protein transportation

Carbon nanotube (CNT) nanoporous membranes based on pre-aligned CNTs have superior nano-transportation properties in biological science. Herein, we report a smart temperature- and temperature-magnetic-responsive CNT nanoporous membrane (CNM) by grafting thermal-sensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4-NPs) on the open ends of pre-aligned CNTs with a diameter...

Voltage-dependent ion channels and their gating.