Filip Van Petegem
PhD
Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Associate Member
Filip Van Petegem obtained his PhD in Biochemistry at Ghent University (Belgium) in 2002, where he was trained as an X-ray crystallographer. He then moved to UCSF for postdoctoral studies, investigating the structure and function of voltage-gated calcium channels. Since 2007, he joined the Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UBC, where he was promoted to Full Professor in 2017. His lab uses electrophysiology and structural biology methods to study ion channels.
Contact Info
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3
Research Information
Our lab studies the structure and function of ion channels, membrane proteins that generate electrical signals. Cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography are utilized to generate 3D structures, whereas electrophysiology on recombinantly expressed proteins allows us to test hypotheses, obtained from the structures. Current projects involve voltage-gated sodium and calcium channels, as well as Ryanodine Receptors. Questions we try to solve our how disease mutations affect these ion channels, how they inactivate and facilitate, and how a range of additional proteins provide input signals to the channels.
PublicationsKeywords
- electrical signaling
- ion channels
- calcium signals
- cryo-EM
- X-ray crystallography
- electrophysiology