Research Director

Atsushi Nakagawa

Institute for Protein Research, Osaka University
Professor
website

Outline

Electric signal is important in many living process, such as nerve signal transmission and heart beat. Recently new voltage-sensing proteins have been identified, and these molecules transduce electrical signals into intracellular signals in a different way from the classical voltage-gated ion channels. Our project aims to reveal dynamic mechanism of signal transduction by the new voltage-sensing proteins based on their atomic structure. These results will open a new paradigm of life science. Our results will give valuable information for strategic development of new tools for visualization of electrical signal and will be extended to the studies for medical application.