View source for Ion channel

== History ==
The fundamental properties of currents mediated by ion channels were analyzed by the British [[biophysics|biophysicist]]s [[Alan Hodgkin]] and [[Andrew Huxley]] as part of their [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Nobel Prize]]-winning research on the [[action potential]], published in 1952. They built on the work of other physiologists, such as Cole and Baker's research into voltage-gated membrane pores from 1941.<ref>
{{cite journal | vauthors = Pethig R, Kell DB | title = The passive electrical properties of biological systems: their significance in physiology, biophysics and biotechnology | journal = Physics in Medicine and Biology | volume = 32 | issue = 8 | pages = 933–70 | date = August 1987 | pmid = 3306721 | doi = 10.1088/0031-9155/32/8/001 | url = http://dbkgroup.org/Papers/pethig_kell_pmb87.pdf | quote = An expansive review of bioelectrical characteristics from 1987. ... the observation of an inductance (negative capacitance) by Cole and Baker (1941) during measurements of the AC electrical properties of squid axons led directly to the concept of voltage-gated membrane pores, as embodied in the celebrated Hodgkin-Huxley (1952) treatment (Cole 1972, Jack er a1 1975), as the crucial mechanism of neurotransmission. | bibcode = 1987PMB....32..933P | s2cid = 250880496 }}
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{{cite journal | vauthors = Cole KS, Baker RF | title = Longitudinal Impedance of the Squid Giant Axon | journal = The Journal of General Physiology | volume = 24 | issue = 6 | pages = 771–88 | date = July 1941 | pmid = 19873252 | pmc = 2238007 | doi = 10.1085/jgp.24.6.771 | publisher = The Rockefeller University Press | quote = Describes what happens when you stick a [[squid giant axon|giant squid axon]] with electrodes and pass through an alternating current, and then notice that sometimes the voltage rises with time, and sometimes it decreases. The inductive reactance is a property of the axon and requires that it contain an inductive structure. The variation of the impedance with interpolar distance indicates that the inductance is in the membrane }}
</ref> The existence of ion channels was confirmed in the 1970s by [[Bernard Katz]] and [[Ricardo Miledi]] using noise analysis {{Citation needed|date=March 2022|reason=Which paper(s) are you referring here?}}. It was then shown more directly with an [[electrophysiology|electrical recording technique]] known as the "[[patch clamp]]", which led to a Nobel Prize to [[Erwin Neher]] and [[Bert Sakmann]], the technique's inventors. Hundreds if not thousands of researchers continue to pursue a more detailed understanding of how these proteins work. In recent years the development of [[Electrophysiology#Planar patch clamp|automated patch clamp devices]] helped to increase significantly the throughput in ion channel screening.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2003 was awarded to [[Roderick MacKinnon]] for his studies on the physico-chemical properties of ion channel structure and function, including [[x-ray crystallography|x-ray crystallographic]] [[protein structure|structure]] studies.