Page 22 - RxBound Winter 2020

Alper Ozkan, post-doc fellow, Yi-Chun, MSPS student, Wenjaun Jiang, post-doc fellow, Yun (Lyna) Luo, Jerome Lacroix and Wesley Botello-Smith, post-doc fellow.

Interprofessional Team Receives

NIH Grant Funding to Study Ion Channels

By Rodney Tanaka

An interprofessional research team from Western perform these biological functions, cells need to sense these
University of Health Sciences received a $1.25 mechanical forces and respond in an appropriate fashion,
Lacroix said.
million National Institutes of Health Research
In vertebrates, this task is mainly performed by plasma
Project Grant (R01) that may lead to new
membrane proteins called Piezo channels. Piezo channels
treatments for hypertension, chronic pain, generate small electrical or chemical signals when mechanical
lymphedema and malaria. stimuli deform the cell membrane. These signals are essential
for a myriad of cellular and physiological processes in
College of Pharmacy Associate Professor Yun (Lyna) Luo, PhD, virtually all organ systems.
and Graduate College of Biomedical Sciences Assistant
How this protein senses and responds to mechanical forces
Professor Jerome Lacroix, PhD, are the principal
and small molecule modulators is unknown. The goal of this
investigators of “Mechanisms of Mechanical and Chemical
proposal is to identify structural and thermodynamic changes
Gating in Mechanosensitive Piezo1 Channels.” The four-year
induced by mechanical and chemical stimuli in Piezo1 using
grant includes funding of about $300,000 annually for the
a multidisciplinary combination of computational and
first two years and about $324,000 for years three and four.
experimental methods.
Mechanical forces are constantly produced as cells grow and
“In this project, we will investigate how the atomic structure
divide in a developing embryo or during physiological
of the Piezo1 channel is affected by mechanical forces and by
processes such as blood circulation and cell migration. To
20 WesternU, College of Pharmacy