Graduate Scholar Talk - October 3, 2019

Designing Novel Strategies for Next Generation Calcium Channel Blockers

Speaker: Travis Morgenstern, Dept of Pharm & Molecular Signaling

Voltage-gated calcium channels control the cellular passage of calcium ions which is critical for muscle contraction, signaling between neurons, and many other processes. Drugs that block these channels are prescribed to treat hypertension, chronic pain and other diseases but their use is limited because of off-target effects. Morgenstern's work seeks to increase the precision of the blockers by genetically encoding the calcium channels to increase their selective inhibition.