FOR 2518 – DynIon
Functional Dynamics of Ion Channels and Transporters

The Research Unit FOR 2518 combines experimental and computational strategies to study ion channels and transporters. Research activities focus on ligand activation of ion channels, including ion channels that require ligand binding for channel opening (ionotropic glutamate receptors), ion channels that are modulated by ligands (K2P channels, voltage-gated K+ channels, cyclic nucleotide modulated ion channels) and transporters that can also adopt channel-like conformations (EAAT glutamate transporters and CLC anion channels/anion-proton exchangers). A variety of experimental approaches, ranging from electrophysiology, biochemistry and microscopical fluorometry to structural biology, will be integrated with computational techniques including all-atom molecular dynamics (MD), hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanics simulations, as well as free energy calculations and Markov state modeling. Besides the Jena University Hospital, Christian Albrechts University of Kiel, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry Göttingen, Freie Universität Berlin and Leibniz Institute for Molecular Pharmacology Berlin are involved in the project.