Principal Investigator
Dr. Swartz joined NINDS as an Investigator in 1997 to establish a laboratory studying the structure and operational mechanisms of ion channel proteins. He was promoted to Senior Investigator in 2003, received the NIH Directors Award for Scientific Achievement in 2008 and the Kenneth S. Cole Award from the Biophysical Society in 2017. His laboratory is currently using biochemical, molecular biological, biophysical and structural techniques to investigate the structure and functional mechanisms of voltage-activated ion channels, TRP channels and P2X receptor channels.
Lab Members
She has expertise in molecular biology, protein expression and purification from eukaryotic/prokaryotic systems, biochemical stabilization of proteins in solution and their biophysical characterization using various chromatography techniques, surface plasmon resonance, structural studies using cryo-electron microscopy and functional whole-cell patch-clamp recording. Her research interests are to understand the molecular basis of diverse functions carried out by ion channels in cells as well as their modulation by membrane lipids and auxiliary proteins. She has joined the Swartz laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow in 2022 to explore the functional mechanisms of P2X receptor channels, an interesting class of trimeric ion channels that are activated by extracellular ATP. In her spare time, Surbhi enjoys reading fiction, gardening, badminton and exploring new places.
In 2014 she obtained postdoctoral training with Baron Chanda at the University of Wisconsin where she used innovative biophysical approaches to study the Shaker voltage-activated potassium (Kv) channel to understand the structural mechanism by which voltage-sensing domains couple to the pore domain to control opening of the internal gate. Ana joined the Swartz laboratory in 2017 to use both structural and functional approaches to study the mechanism of slow inactivation in the human ‘ether a-go-go’ (hERG) Kv channel, Shaker and Kv1.3 channels. From her work on inactivation in Kv1.3, she developed an interest in using nanobodies to stabilize specific conformations of Kv channels for both structural and mechanistic studies. Ana is currently focused on using our recent structure of the neuronal Kv2.1 channel along with functional approaches to investigate mechanism of inactivation and to study human mutations causing epileptic encephalopathy.
Her work as a postbaccalaureate fellow in the Swartz laboratory is focused on understanding how the TRPM3 channel is activated by various biological stimuli and exploring structural and functional relationships with other TRP channels. Charlotte’s plan is to pursue graduate studies when she finishes her postbaccalaureate fellowship.
Over the course of her studies, she will draw upon the expertise of the two laboratories to characterize the electrophysiological and molecular properties of these Schwann cells to determine which ion channels play roles in detecting and transducing painful stimuli. Before joining the Swartz Laboratory, Maia received her Master’s in Neuroscience from the University of Helsinki, where she conducted her thesis studies with the Baraban Epilepsy Research Lab at UCSF. The lab is home to dozens of zebrafish models for several forms of human genetic epilepsy. As part of her project, Maia conducted forebrain EEG field recordings in larval zebrafish to identify genes associated the catastrophic childhood epilepsy. Outside of the lab, Maia enjoys cycling. She fell in love with the sport when she cycled across America in 2014 and she hopes to one day explore another country (or continent!) by bike.
She joined the Swartz laboratory in 2020 to work on computational modeling of protein-ligand binding for her senior project in high school. Elisabeth worked as a summer student in 2021 on a computational project using Rosetta to investigate TRP channel protein-ligand interactions, and in 2022 on an experimental project studying pocket conservation and computational analysis of TRP channel pocket motifs. Both projects involved leveraging structural information to examine functional characteristics and regulation of TRP channels.
Purushotham Selvakumar, PhD
Research Fellow
E-mail: pus2005@med.cornell.edu
In 2020 Xiaofeng joined the Swartz laboratory, where his main interest has been to elucidate key functional mechanisms in voltage-activated potassium (Kv) channels using single particle cryo-EM. Most recently he succeeded in elucidating the long-sought mechanism of slow C-type inactivation in the Shaker Kv channel, revealing that inactivation leads to the unanticipated dilation of the ion selectivity filter within the external pore of the channel. His big dream is to understand the mechanism of voltage sensing and how voltage-sensor activation controls opening and closing of the internal pore of Kv channels.