Cells send electrical impulses throughout the body, but electrophysiologists struggled to tune into these signals until the patch clamp technique was developed. Although biophysicist Bernard Katz from ...

Every hug, every handshake, every dexterous act engages and requires touch perception, and so understanding the molecular basis of touch is important. But to date, scientists had only known about one ...

A new study has rewritten the conventionally understood evolutionary history of certain ion channels -- proteins critical for electrical signaling in the nervous system. The study shows that the ...

Researchers have discovered how an ion channel in the brain's neurons has a kind of 'molecular memory', which contributes to the formation and preservation of lifelong memories. The researchers have ...

Researchers decipher the function of an ion channel involved in cellular degradation processes and create new possibilities for Parkinson’s therapies. Washbowls, bathtubs, and sinks are all fitted ...

When a scrappy team of scientists joined forces in the late 1990s, they sought to identify genetic mutations that could have an outsized impact on the treatment of human disease. At the time, that ...

(Nanowerk Spotlight) Biological brains compute using ions, not electrons. Every signal between neurons depends on charged atoms passing through protein channels embedded in cell membranes, a system ...