Title
Assistant Professor

Department
Dept of Molecular & Cell Biology
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute


Faculty URL
https://mcb.berkeley.edu/faculty/NEU/brohawns

Research Group
http://www.brohawnlab.org/

Email
brohawn@berkeley.edu

Phone
(510) 664-7582


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Research Expertise and Interest
neurobiology, Structural Biology, biophysics

Research Description
Sensation of environmental stimuli, thought, learning, memory, and other aspects of neuronal communication, hormone secretion and movement all rely on cellular electrical signals. The Brohawn Lab studies life’s electrical system from a molecular and biophysical perspective. The focus of the laboratory is on ion channels, transporters and their regulatory complexes that form gated pathways for ionic traffic across cell membranes. We aim to discover how these membrane proteins work at a mechanistic level and what they do in a biological context. We utilize a range of approaches including structure determination?by cryo-electron microscopy, electrophysiology, biophysics, biochemistry, pharmacology and imaging. Their goals are to understand the molecular basis of sensory transduction and electrical signaling and to lay the groundwork for development of new approaches to promoting health and treating disease.