Current Topics in Ion Channels

Catalog description

The course is a seminar format, specifically a journal club format, targeted to graduate students and MD/PhD students interested in ion channels. It meets for one hour, once a week for graduate students and once every other week for the entire group with formal presentation. On alternate weeks a faculty member meets with students to discuss and review the contents of each selected article for the subsequent week's presentation. This is an elective course meant to excite and intellectually enlighten students regarding the latest advances in ion channel research. It includes a wide range of ion channel topics from basic biophysics, structure, and physiology to cell biology and clinical applications. It is attended by faculty, students, and postdocs from the departments of Physiology, Pathology, Neuroscience, Pharmacology, Biochemistry & Biophysics, Psychiatry. We require a written critique of each paper presented by other participants during the semester, submitted prior to the formal presentation of the paper. This critique will be graded by a faculty member, as will the student's participation in both the preparatory sessions and formal presentation sessions. A final grade would be based on both of these components.