Force-Gated Ion Channels
This meeting was a follow-up to the first one held at Janelia in 2008, and the second in Berlin in 2012. Force-gated ion channels, activated by direct mechanical force, have been found to be involved in both mechanosensation (hearing, touch, proprioception) and osmosensation. Many questions still remain as to the molecular identities of the proteins that form these channels, the nature of the accessory proteins that help convey energy to the channels, channel interaction with plasma membrane lipids, and the molecular events by which force leads to channel opening. This small workshop brought together experts from around the world working in various model systems to address these questions, with the goal of better understanding the gating mechanism and identifying channel linking proteins and enabling lipids. Building on the current momentum in the field, we participated in vigorous discussions and presentations on recent progress, including newly identified channels and their structural and functional properties.
Organizers
David Corey, HHMI/Harvard Medical School
Miriam Goodman, Stanford University
Invited Participants
Martin Chalfie, Columbia University
Alexander Dunn, Stanford University
David Ginty, HHMI/Harvard Medical School
Martin Göpfert, University of Göttingen
Elizabeth Haswell, Washington University in St. Louis
Jeffrey Holt, Boston Children's Hospital
A. James Hudspeth, HHMI/The Rockefeller University
Yuh-Nung Jan, HHMI/University of California, San Francisco
Ching Kung, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Gary Lewin, Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine
Whasil Lee, Duke University
Gary Lewin, Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine
Ellen Lumpkin, Columbia University
Rod MacKinnon, HHMI/The Rockefeller University
Ulrich Mueller, Scripps Research Institute
Ardem Patapoutian, HHMI/Scripps Research Institute
Anthony Ricci, Stanford University School of Medicine
Marcos Sotomayor, Ohio State University
Sergei Sukharev, University of Maryland
Dan Tracey, Duke University
Valeria Vasquez, University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Viola Vogel, ETH Zurich
Available to grad students and postdocs whose labs do not have travel funding and who would otherwise be unable to attend. Interested applicants must register and note their request for travel support on the registration site.