Abstract: Series 118, Lecture 2
The Harvey Lectures Series 118 (2024—2025)
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Lecture #2: Thursday, November 21, 2024 — Time and Location
May The Force Be With You! Piezo Channels in Sensory Physiology and Disease
Ardem Patapoutian, PhD
Presidential Endowed Chair in Neurobiology
Professor, Department of Neuroscience
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Scripps Research
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
La Jolla, California
Mechanotransduction was perhaps the last major sensory modality not understood at the molecular level. Proteins/ion channels that sense mechanical force are postulated to play critical roles in sensing touch/pain (somatosensation), sound (hearing), shear stress (cardiovascular function), etc.; however, the identity of ion channels involved in sensing mechanical force had remained elusive. The Patapoutian lab identified PIEZO1 and PIEZO2, mechanically-activated cation channels that are expressed in many mechanosensitive cell types. Genetic studies established that PIEZO2 is the principal mechanical transducer for touch, proprioception, baroreception and bladder & lung stretch, and that PIEZO1 mediates blood-flow sensing, which impacts vascular development and iron homeostasis. Clinical investigations have confirmed the importance of these channels in human physiology.