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SUMMARY:The mechanics and biophysics of getting in touch -    Miriam Goodm
 an\, Beckmann Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine\, Stanford Univers
 ity\, California\, USA
DTSTART:20190520T153000Z
DTEND:20190520T170000Z
UID:TALK125185@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:37815
DESCRIPTION:Touch is the first sense to develop\, the last to fade and the
  least well understood of the five basic senses. For decades\, we have und
 erstood that ion channels were the first responders of touch sensation—c
 onverting the mechanical energy delivered in a touch or the bend of a limb
  into neural signals. Yet\, the identity of the proteins forming such prot
 eins remained elusive. Research in my group and others has identified at l
 east three classes of proteins that can form these so-called mechanoelectr
 ical transduction (MeT) channels in mammals and invertebrates—DEG/ENaC s
 odium channels\, TRP cation channels\, and Piezo cation channels. We are w
 orking to expand our knowledge of how MeT channels depend on biophysics of
  force transfer for activation (Eastwood et al\, PNAS 2015\; Sanzeni et al
 \, BioRxiv 2019\; Katta et al\, BioRxiv 2019) and continuing to investigat
 e the protein partners that make these channels.\n\nMy talk will survey pr
 ior knowledge and discuss our recent investigations applying the tools of 
 genetic dissection and quantitative mechanical models to the biophysics of
  in vivo MeT channel activation using C. elegans nematodes as a tractable 
 model.
LOCATION:The Hodgkin Huxley Seminar Room\, Department of Physiology Develo
 pment and Neuroscience
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