Mechanisms of Transmembrane Ion Transport
The flow of ions across cellular membranes underlies important physiological processes, such as electrical signalling, transepithelial transport and the control of the cell volume and the intracellular pH. My group is interested in the mechanisms by which ion channels and ion transporters catalyze these selective transport processes. We investigate selected families of ion transport proteins taking an interdisciplinary approach. As a prerequisite for studying func-tion we are determining the structure of these transmembrane transport proteins, of regulatory domains and accessory proteins by X-ray crystallography. Subsequently, we investigate the transport mechanisms by means of biochemical, structural and electrophysiological methods.
The following topics are in the center of our current work: