H. Peter Larsson, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology and biophysics, has a paper titled "Strong Cooperativity Between Subunits in Voltage-Gated Proton Channels" in the January edition of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. Larsson's paper was also displayed on the journal's Web site.

Larsson is conducting research that's shedding light on how voltage-gated proton channels function, as well as their role in triggering immune system responses.

"Proton channels are found in many cell types in the human body," Larsson explains. "They've been found in blood cells, and they're very important for the immune response in the blood cells. They're an essential part of how these blood cells kill bacteria.

"Proton channels come as a pair in most cells, and you have to activate both parts of the pair before anything can go through," Larsson adds. "Neither one is open unless you activate both of them."

Prior to Larsson's research, scientists believed that voltage-gated proton channels functioned independently of each other.

"We're hoping to take our finding to the clinical level," Larsson says. "We'll find some use for this in medicine."