PhD Dissertation Literature Mastery Presentation – Yi-Chun Lin, PhD Student – “Investigating Voltage-Gated Potassium Channel by Computational Approach”

Please join us for PhD Student Yi-Chun Lin, Research Assistant, Western University give her PhD Literature Mastery presentation.

The voltage gated channel family is the third largest class of signal transduction proteins following GPCR and protein kinases. The activation of the voltage gated channel is by the change of the membrane potential. There are two types of activations, hyper-polarization and depolarization. Most voltage-gated potassium channels (Kv) are activated by membrane depolarization; however, HCN channels are activated by membrane hyperpolarization. Knowledge of multiple conformational states of ion channels is a prerequisite to understand their function. The hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide (HCN) gated channel underlies the control of rhythmic activity in cardiac and neuronal pacemaker cells at the heart, brain, and kidney. In order to investigate voltage-gated potassium channels efficiently, the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation can be utilized to address that. The atomistic models illustrate the conductance, activation, or ligand binding of voltage-gated potassium channels. Those computational approaches provide the structure conformation, chemical kinetics or thermodynamic information which helps to understand the different activations of potassium channels.

Date:  Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Time: 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Location: 535 Bldg. – West Conference Room and Via Zoom (See Outlook invite for Zoom Link)