The general anesthetic propofol may hold the keys to developing new treatment strategies for epilepsy and other neurological disorders, according to a study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Linköping University in Sweden.

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and RMIT University in Australia have discovered that ion channels called BK channels have unique openings in their sides, which drug molecules may be able to access.

Two highly similar molecules with essential, but often contrasting, signaling roles in most life forms exert their distinct effects through subtle differences in their bindings to their signaling partners.

The mechanism by which fat-related molecules called lipids regulate pacemaker ion channel proteins, which help control the heart rhythm, has been revealed in a study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have shown that they can record the high-speed motions of proteins while correlating their motion to function.

Heartbeat rhythms may be regulated by a family of enzymes called prolyl isomerases, according to a study from scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Ion channels, which allow potassium and sodium ions to flow in and out of cells, are crucial in neuronal ‘firing’ in the central nervous system and for brain and heart function. These channels use a “ball-and-chain” mechanism to help regulate their ion flow, according to a new study led by Weill Cornell Medicine scientists. The study, published March 18 in Nature, confirms a long-standing hypothesis about ion channels, and represents a key advance in the understanding of the basic biological processes at work in most cells. The direct imaging of the ball-and-chain mechanism, using electron-microscopy techniques, can also provide a new angle to design drugs that target it to improve ion channel function. Ion channel abnormalities have been linked to a long list of disorders including epilepsies, heart arrhythmias, schizophrenia and diabetes. “Scientists have been trying to get an atomic-scale picture of this mechanism since the 1970s, and now that we have it at last, it can become an important drug target,” said senior author Dr. Crina Nimigean, an associate professor of physiology and biophysics in anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Crina Nimigean Many types of ion channels, including those necessary for neuronal signaling and the beating of the heart, will physically open, allowing a flow of ions in or out of the cell, when a certain stimulus is applied. However, in order to switch ion flow on and off with high enough frequencies to meet the demands of neurons, heart muscle cells and other cell types, some ion channels need an additional, on-the-fly mechanism to stop ion flow—even when the stimulus is still present and the channel structure is in principle in the “open” state. Researchers in the field have suspected since 1973, based on biochemical experiments, that this on-the-fly mechanism resembles a bathtub plug on a chain, or “ball-and-chain” structure. But confirming this directly with atomic-scale imaging methods has been a formidable challenge.…

Awards, honors, prizes and achievements for the month of December.