Why studying TRP channels?

The doc.funds programme will focus on the study of disease-related mechanisms based on altered ion-channel regulation involving the TRP signalling network. The critical role of TRP channels was recently highlighted by the award of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to two pioneers in the field: David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian. The large family of TRP channels regulates sensory- and ligand-induced signalling cascades, playing e.g., a prominent role in heat/cold or pain transmission, but also in many other physiological sensing functions. The TRPC channel subfamily comprises cation permeable ion channels that conduct mainly Na⁺ and Ca²⁺ into different cell types, regulating their membrane potential. Their contribution to specialised, laterally confined cellular networks that involve feedback regulation sets in motion cascades of signalling events which we are only beginning to understand.

The TRPC.at doctoral school is an interdisciplinary consortium that has developed an original approach to leveraging a wide repertoire of recently developed photopharmacological tools alongside electrophysiological recording techniques, including innovative fluorescent biosensors, specific TRPC knockout mice and human samples. By integrating genetic and pharmacological manipulation of 3R (reduce, replace and refine) models, the program aims to study how cellular TRP signaling networks are linked to disease. In the context of this program, we will address specific pathologies in the heart, lung, brain, and immune system and intracellular communications (research teams described below) where the role of TRPC/A/ML channels is still insufficiently understood.