Ion Channel Biophysics and Calcium Signaling in Neurodegeneration and Cancer
This community investigates the molecular mechanisms of ion channels and intracellular calcium signaling to understand how these processes drive neurological disorders, cancer progression, and cellular stress responses.
The research focuses heavily on the structure, gating, and pharmacology of voltage-gated potassium, sodium, and calcium channels. A significant portion of the work examines mitochondrial calcium uptake, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and calcium dynamics in neurons and skeletal muscle. Applications include modeling Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and breast cancer in mouse models and cell lines. Methods frequently involve calcium imaging, electron microscopy, and molecular dynamics simulations to map channel blockers and signaling pathways.
The largest share of the community's output is found in calcium research, accounting for 21.4% of all calcium research, with 24,096 papers here. Potassium research follows with a 16.8% share, and sodium research contributes 7.8%.
The community comprises 127,990 papers, published primarily in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Cell Calcium, and The Journal of Physiology.
Recent work continues to focus on calcium dysregulation in Alzheimer’s disease, the structure of the mitochondrial calcium transporter NCLX, and the role of mechanosensitive channels like Piezo1 in calcium dynamics.