Revealing the ion transport at nanoscale

28. EPFL researchers have shown that a law of physics having to do with electron transport at nanoscale can also be analogously applied to the ion transport. This discovery provides insight into a key aspect of how ion channels function within our living cells. The membrane of all human cells contains tiny channels through which ions pass through at high speed. These ion channels play a fundamental role in how neurons, muscular cells and cardiac cells in particular function. Ion channels are extremely complex, and many questions remain unanswered. How do the channels select the ions allowed to pass through? What accounts for the channels' high conductivity? Researchers in EPFL's Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology, which is headed by Aleksandra Radenovic, have demonstrated that ion transport could be described by a law of physics called Coulomb blockade.