BK Channel Hydrophobic Gating

In addition to the comprehensive model of BK gating, I have worked on advanced sampling methods for the free energy of dewetting in nanoscale pores including the one in BK. BK channels can be activated by both membrane voltage and intracellular calcium binding. Intriguingly, the structures reveal that the inner pore remains wide-open in both activated and deactivated states. Combining atomistic simulations and experiments, we recently showed that BK channels contain a “hydrophobic gate”, where the inner pore desolvates and is impermeable to ions. I have applied a modified protocol of the nanopore study to quantify how key inner pore mutations modulate the liquid-vapor equilibrium in the pore. Read the paper Sometimes, I even able to see an ion permeation, as in the video...