Naturally occurring calcium channels act as pores on the membranes of excitable cells, such as those found in nerves and muscles. The channels drive electrical activity by controlling the influx of ...

Certain cells, commonly called excitable cells, are unique because of their ability to generate electrical signals. Although several types of excitable cells exist — including neurons, muscle cells, ...

Ion channels are pores in the membrane of cells or cell organelles. They allow positively or negatively charged particles, so-called ions, to be transported across the membrane. Biochemists at ...

New research reveals how tiny electrical gates in the brain, known as NMDA receptors, control learning, memory, and neuron ...

Ion selectivity is an important property of cell membrane ion channels. For example, potassium ion channels are more permeable to potassium ions than to sodium ions. The mechanism underlying the ready ...

Japan's Innovation Center of NanoMedicine reports on a new stealth coating for tiny medicine-carrying particles that doesn't ...

In studying how neurotransmitters travel between cells, Cornell researchers have discovered that an electrical current thought to be present during that process does not, in fact, exist. The ...

Ion channels are transmembrane proteins specifically involved with the transport of inorganic ions like Na+, K+, Ca2+, or Cl-. Ion channels are “gated”, i.e. they open in response to a specific ...

Inspired by nature, an international research team has created synthetic pores that mimic the activity of cellular ion channels, which play a vital role in human health by severely restricting the ...

Researchers at Göttingen Campus, Germany, have succeeded for the first time in examining the tiny synapses in the inner ...

MANHATTAN — As a youth, John Tomich always envisioned himself as an inventor. "My mother always told me to invent something simple that everyone could use, say a safety pin or a zipper, " Tomich said.