Lab News

We show that ligand-binding pockets thought to be structurally rigid can display temperature-dependent ligand recognition, revealing an underappreciated role of physiological temperature in biophysical studies and drug development. This was a great team effort—thanks to everyone involved!
Link to the preprint.

We are excited to welcome the undergraduate students who have joined the lab over the past year:

Sophia Du — joined in May 2025
Tracy Liang — joined in September 2025
Rita Yu — joined in October 2025
Nathan Kim — joined in January 2026

Published today in Nature Communications: the laxative bisacodyl and its active metabolite directly activate TRPM4 to regulate intestinal fluid homeostasis. A great collaboration with Dr. Cao’s lab at China Pharmaceutical University!

A unified allosteric site controls TRPM5 function, published today in Nature Chemical Biology.

After 26 months (!) from initial submission to publication, our PANX1 study is finally out in Nature Communications! The extremely long review process made this a truly memorable experience (for better or worse), and the team’s persistence and dedication carried it through.

Thanks to everyone on the PANX1 team for their hard work and resilience!

Through our collaboration with the Kannan lab at the University of Georgia, we reveal conserved gating determinants in understudied CALHM ion channels using an evolutionary analysis approach combined with electrophysiology.

A major milestone — She is now officially a PhD candidate!

Welcome Anna Gilstrap and Tisha Dash!