Gateway Ion Channel Symposium

Axel R. Concepcion is the Neubauer Family Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago since July 2022. Axel received a B.Sc. in Chemical Technology from the University of Panama and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Cell & Molecular Biology from the University of Navarra. Prior to joining the University of Chicago, Axel served as the Bernard B. Levine postdoctoral fellow in Immunology at New York University Grossman School of Medicine. Axel’s research focuses on the identification and characterization of ion channels in cells of the immune system and involves the use of functional genetic screens in immune cells in the context of viral infection, autoimmunity, and cancer. His research team combines cross-disciplinary approaches including functional genomics, systems immunology, electrophysiology, and a set of cell and molecular biology techniques to understand the complex molecular networks regulated by ion channels in immune cells. The goal of his research team is to advance our knowledge of how ion channels coordinate the immune responses to make fundamental and translational advances in immunotherapy.

Ted Cummins is Professor and Chair of Biology at Indiana University – Indianapolis and a member of the Stark Neurosciences Research Institute.  Dr. Cummins received his bachelor degree in chemistry from Swarthmore College, a Masters in Biomedical Engineering and his PhD in Neuroscience from Yale University.  Over the last 30 years his research has focused on understanding how voltage-gated sodium channel disease mutations alter the biophysical properties of ion channels and lead to disorders of excitability. Dr. Cummins also has substantial experience investigating the molecular determinants of sodium channel pharmacology. His lab has developed novel methods for determining how animal toxins specifically alter the activity of ion channels and is developing new screens in order to find novel sodium channel modulators. Overall the long-term goal of his research is to help develop better strategies for the treatment of disorders that involve ion channels.

Dr. Stephanie Gantz is an early-career investigator in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Iowa. The major goal of the Gantz lab is to understand how G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) influence neuronal excitability through action on ion channels and modulating synaptic transmission. In her doctoral and postdoctoral training, Dr. Gantz made significant contributions to the field’s understanding of unexpected or non-canonical mechanisms whereby GPCRs influence membrane ion channels, which were published in peer-reviewed journals. In the past five years, her research has been dedicated towards understanding how a subset of GPCRs — those coupled to Gaq  — act on membrane ion channels in dopamine and serotonin neurons. The current focus of Dr. Gantz’s work is the regulation of delta-1 glutamate receptor (GluD1R) activity by the Gq-coupled a1-adrenergic receptor, based on her discovery of their interaction in 2020.

Dr. Jenkins is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School. He received his Bachelor of Science in General Biology and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan and pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Duke University. His current research is focused on understanding the cellular and molecular underpinnings of complex psychiatric diseases and neurodevelopmental disorders, like bipolar disorder and autism spectrum disorder. To address this goal, his laboratory utilizes cellular and molecular biology, mouse models, confocal microscopy, electrophysiology, and human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons. Dr. Jenkins is the lead investigator on a federally funded grant from the National Institutes of Health and has independent investigator awards from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, One Mind, the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI), and the FamilieSCN2A Foundation through the Million Dollar Bike Ride.

Indira M. Raman is the Bill and Gayle Cook Professor in Biological Sciences and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology at Northwestern University. Her research is in the areas of ion channel biophysics, synaptic transmission, and cerebellar physiology. She has served on NIH study sections, the NINDS Board of Scientific Counselors, and the NINDS Advisory Council, and has been a reviewing editor for the Journal of Neuroscience, Biophysical Journal, and eLife.  With co-author David Ferster, she wrote “The Annotated Hodgkin and Huxley: A Reader’s Guide” (Princeton University Press, 2021), a guidebook through the fundamental papers in cellular physiology. Her contributions to science, teaching, and training have been recognized through her election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the 2023 Hodgkin-Huxley-Katz Prize by the Physiological Society, a Charles Deering McCormick Professorship of Teaching Excellence, and the 2023 NINDS Landis Award for Outstanding Mentorship.

Gail Robertson, Kellett Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a molecular biologist and biophysicist interested in mechanisms controlling electrical excitability in the heart and brain. Work from her lab showed that cardiac IKr is produced by channels encoded by the hERG gene and identified hERG channels as the molecular target for acquired long QT syndrome. She is co-inventor of the hERG cell-based safety assay ensuring drugs in development do not cause catastrophic arrhythmias. As a postdoc she worked collaboratively to isolate the Drosophila slo gene and determine the primary structure of the first “BK” ion channel. More recently her lab made the surprising discovery that functionally related ion channels are synthesized in pairs from physically associated mRNA molecules and are cotranslationally regulated. She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER, AHA Established Investigator, and Biophysical Society K.S. Cole awards, and recent President of the Biophysical Society.

Jacy Wagnon, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at The Ohio State University. Her laboratory investigates the pathogenic mechanisms underlying seizures and comorbidities in developmental and epileptic encephalopathies (DEEs) caused by genetic variants in the voltage-gated sodium channel genes SCN8A and SCN1A. Her research program utilizes mouse models of sodium channel DEE to understand the relationship between seizures and cognitive, motor, and behavioral comorbidities and to identify new treatments for these severe disorders. Dr. Wagnon is currently funded by NINDS and the Dravet Syndrome Foundation. She is a member of the Scientific Program Committee for the American Epilepsy Society, the ClinGen Epilepsy Gene Curation Working Group, and the ClinGen Sodium Channel Variant Curation Expert Panel. In addition, she serves as a Contributing Editor in Basic Science for Epilepsy Currents and as a Review Editor for Frontiers in Pharmacology: Pharmacology of Ion Channels and Channelopathies.

Yang Yang, Ph.D., is currently an associate professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Purdue University. Dr. Yang graduated with dual bachelor’s degrees from Shanghai University, and completed a Ph.D. degree at Georgia State University. He did postdoctoral training in Dr. Stephen Waxman’s lab at Yale University School of Medicine studying voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.7 and its related chronic pain syndrome. Dr. Yang started his independent lab at Purdue University in 2017 as a tenure-track assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2023.

Yang lab studies genetic neurological diseases including autism, epilepsy, pain, and dementia with both mouse models and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) derived neurons, microglia, and brain organoid models. The current focus of Yang lab is voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.2 (SCN2A) and its related autism and epilepsy. The lab is also developing next-generation therapeutics to treat these monogenic neurological diseases.

Yang lab is funded by two NIH R01, as well as private foundations including the FamiliesSCN2A Foundation. Dr. Yang’s works were published in Cell Reports, Nature Communications, and the Journal of Neuroscience among others.