Sensory Biology and Mechanobiology (막단백질 구조·기능 연구실)

We are developing and comparing reconstitution strategies using proteoliposomes, nanodiscs, and native-lipid particles, while exploring polymer-based vesicles as complementary platforms. These systems offer different opportunities to control lipid composition, bilayer organization, curvature, and compartmentalization. Membrane tension, curvature, thickness, and electrical potential are distinct variables: we seek to characterize them independently wherever possible rather than treating any one of them as a proxy for the others. A central goal is to connect controlled changes in the membrane environment with cryo-EM analysis and functional measurements. Compartmentalized systems also offer a route toward defined ionic gradients and membrane potentials, provided these conditions are measured and maintained. This work invites collaboration with membrane biophysicists, polymer chemists, materials scientists, and specialists in quantitative membrane characterization. Sensory ion channels convert thermal, chemical, and mechanical inputs into changes in ion flow. We investigate how stimulus recognition is coupled to opening, closing, and regulation, and how these processes depend on the membrane and associated proteins. By comparing structures across defined ligand and membrane conditions, we aim to identify the interactions that stabilize different conformations. Cryo-EM provides structural snapshots; biochemical and electrophysiological experiments test their functional meaning. We use this combination to evaluate candidate gating mechanisms, distinguish ligand recognition from downstream activation, and understand how disease-associated changes disrupt regulation. A structure obtained under one preparation condition is not assumed to represent the dominant physiological sta