Drug development for Cantu Syndrome

Mentor: Colin Nichols, Carl Cori Professor, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology
Director, Center for the Investigation of Membrane Excitability Diseases

Lab description: The Nichols Lab develops, introduces and uses a wide range of molecular biological and biophysical approaches, as well as in vivo gene manipulation to address questions in proteins, cells and animals, and now in humans. These efforts are leading them to a detailed understanding of both molecular mechanisms of channel activity, and roles of ion channels in multiple disease processes including diabetes, heart failure, pulmonary disease and epilepsy.

Project: The student will use cell lines expressing Cantu Syndrome mutant KATP channels and assess the efficacy of candidate inhibitory drugs for therapy, using fluorecence based high throughput assays.