Nicotinic receptors—a family of ligand-gated ion channels that mediate the effects of the
neurotransmitter acetylcholine—are among the most well understood allosteric membrane …

Single-molecule biophysics has transformed our understanding of biology, but also of the
physics of life. More exotic than simple soft matter, biomatter lives far from thermal …

Targeted protein degradation (TPD) is a promising approach in drug discovery for degrading
proteins implicated in diseases. A key step in this process is the formation of a ternary …

Despite intense interest in discovering drugs that cause G-protein-coupled receptors
(GPCRs) to selectively stimulate or block arrestin signalling, the structural mechanism of …

Transport of ions through pores in membranes is a process of fundamental importance to
cell biology. In living organisms, such transport is facilitated by ion channels that utilize the …

The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor has served, since its biochemical identification in the
1970s, as a model of an allosteric ligand-gated ion channel mediating signal transition at the …

The synapse is a localized neurohumoral contact between a neuron and an effector cell and
may be considered the quantum of fast intercellular communication. Analogously, the …

This review outlines recent insights into ligand recognition, channel gating and ion
permeation for the family of pentameric ligand-gated ion channels (pLGICs). These …

Recently discovered bacterial homologues of eukaryotic pentameric ligand-gated ion
channels, such as the Gloeobacter violaceus receptor (GLIC), are increasingly used as …

The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) was the first ion channel and membrane
receptor of a neurotransmitter to be isolated and chemically identified and is one of the best …