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Ion channels: From idea to reality

Nature Medicine volume 5, pages 1105–1109 (1999)Cite this article

Pores in the early days

Bertil Hille

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Figure 1: My 1967 thesis drawing of an excitable membrane showing three separate types of ion channels Na, K and leak (L), as well as the Na-K ATPase pump, a "carrier," a serine protease modeled after acetylcholinesterase, and lipids.
Figure 2: a, The squid Goligo pealei.
Figure 3: Early ideas of channel architecture and selectivity (1971–1972).
Figure 4: Three ions in the potassium channel.
Figure 5: Potassium channel demonstrates nature's mechanism of lowering the dielectric barrier.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Box 357290, Seattle, 98195-7290, WA

    Bertil Hille

  2. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia , 19104, PA

    Clay M. Armstrong

  3. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole , 02543, MA

    Clay M. Armstrong

  4. The Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1230 York Avenue, Box 47, New York , 10021, NY

    Roderick MacKinnon

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Hille, B., Armstrong, C. & MacKinnon, R. Ion channels: From idea to reality. Nat Med 5, 1105–1109 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/13415

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