TRAINING IN PHARMACOLOGY, TOXICOLOGY & PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES 2008 ASPET SUMMER UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY at the UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
The Department of Pharmacology & Cell Biophysics, College of Medicine is pleased to offer this research project as part of the 2008 summer ASPET SURF Training Program offered by the Department of Pharmacology & Cell Biophysics.  Students interested in this project are advised to contact Professor Wang to discover more about the project, learn what your responsibilities will be during the ten-week research training program.
2008 ASPET SURF Project #:  08 - 015 Faculty Supervisor/Mentor: Hong-Sheng Wang, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Pharmacology & Cell Biophysics College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati Email:  wanghs@uc.edu
Project Title: Role of Ion Channels in Regulating the Membrane Electrical                         Properties of Cardiac Cells
Research Program Description: Ion channels play a central role in excitability of neurons and muscle cells and signaling in the nervous system. The broad interest of my lab is to understand the properties, functions and regulation of physiologically important ion channels in two systems, cardiac muscle cells and the nervous system. Ion channels in the heart are of much interest because of their well-defined role in arrhythmias and clear potential as drug targets. The current focus of our study is to explore the basis for electrical heterogeneity the ventricular myocardium.      Our goal is 1) to determine the contribution of various ion channels to the electrical heterogeneity under both normal and pathophysiological conditions and 2), to determine the role that various factors, in particular, angiotensin, play in the establishment and/or maintenance of the electrical heterogeneity. In the nervous system we are interested in the regulation of ion channel expression in the context of neural circuit properties. Our current focus is on a K+ channel known as the M-channel. Our past studies have shown that the M-channel is encoded by two epilepsy related genes, KCNQ2 and KCNQ3, and that the M-channel plays a critical role in determining neuronal excitability and electrical phenotype.      The question we are currently studying is how the expression of the M-channel, as a key event in neuronal differentiation, is regulated in the nervous system and matched to the information processing demands of the neural network in which they function. A combination of electrophysiological, pharmacological and molecular biology tools are used in our studies.
ASPET SURF Project Description:      Ion channels are pore-forming membrane proteins. Transmembrane ionic currents generated by ion channels are the basis of electrical activities of excitable tissues, including the heart. Alterations of ionic currents are an important factor in various cardiac diseases such as arrhythmias. The ASPET SURF student summer project focuses on the role of ion channels in regulating the membrane electrical properties of cardiac cells in the broader context of cardiac physiology and heart diseases.      Specifically, The ASPET SURF student research project will focus on a type of cardiac potassium channel known as the transient outward channel, or Ito channel. The ASPET SURF student will employ a cutting-edge technique known as the real-time dynamic clamp to simulate computer-generated Ito channels in real cardiac cells. Using a combination of real-time dynamic clamp, patch-clamp and imaging techniques, the ASPET SURF student will study how simulated Ito channels, when introduced into heart cells, influence the membrane electrical properties and contractile properties under both physiological and diseased conditions.