Van Petegem, Filip

Our lab studies the structure and function of ion channels, membrane proteins that generate electrical signals. Cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography are utilized to generate 3D structures, whereas electrophysiology on recombinantly expressed proteins allows us to test hypotheses, obtained from the structures. Current projects involve voltage-gated sodium and calcium channels, as well as Ryanodine Receptors.  Questions we try to solve our how disease mutations affect these ion channels, how they inactivate and facilitate, and how  a range of additional proteins provide input signals to  the channels.