Catalog description: The cell's membrane potential represents an important source of energy that is used to regulate intracellular ion concentrations, to control secretory process, and as the basis for electrical signaling in the nervous system. This course will provide a background understanding of the ion channel proteins that regulate and respond to cell membrane potential.
To hear a word, to think a thought, to generate the movement of a muscle, all of these life-defining processes are based on electrical signals that in turn rely of the functional properties of ion channels. In this course we will cover the basic principles of how cells create and utilize ionic and electrical gradients. We will cover the different types of ion channels and how they are involved in: maintaining the cell's resting potential, the transduction of chemical signals into the electrical elements of synapses, the generation and conduction of nerve impulses, and neurosecretory events. We will cover the methodology for studying ion channels and models for understanding their behavior. There will be ten lectures and 5 discussion sections. During some of the discussion sections students will use stimulation software to conduct in silico experiments and they will be introduced to the use of data acquisition and analysis software.