Trp-mediated Signaling

The field of transient receptor potential (TRP) channels has gained momentum in recent years not only because of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch, but also because of the growing appreciation of the diverse and important physiological and pathophysiological functions of this diverse family of cation channels. In the past decade, there have been important discoveries in the TRP field: resolution of the 3-D structures of major subfamilies using single-particle cryogenic electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography, identification and development of selective agonists and antagonists for most TRP subfamily members, discovery of new human diseases associated with TRP gene mutations, as well as improved understanding of TRP channel function and regulation in various systems. These new discoveries are addressed in TRP-Mediated Signaling, a volume in the Methods in Signal Transduction book series.

Key Features

• Summarizes recent advances in the study of TRP channels

• Written by a team of leading international researchers

• Reviews physiological and pathophysiological functions of TRP channels

• Identifies diseases associated with TRP gene mutations

• Examines the evolution of temperature-sensing TRP channels

Michael Xi Zhu is a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology, McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas. He received his BS from Fudan University, Shanghai, China, in 1984, and his MS and PhD degrees from the University of Houston in 1988 and 1991, respectively. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Cell Biology at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, from 1991 to 1994 and an assistant researcher in the Department of Anesthesiology, University of California at Los Angeles, from 1994 to 1997. In 1997, he became assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Neurobiotechnology Center at The Ohio State University. In 2000, he transferred his appointment to the Department of Neuroscience and Center for Molecular Neurobiology at The Ohio State University, where was promoted to associate professor in 2003 and to professor in 2010. In 2010, he moved to his current position. Dr. Zhu’s research interests include many aspects of cell signaling, especially those that involve heterotrimeric G proteins and ion channels that affect Ca2+ signaling. Dr. Zhu’s main contributions include identification and characterization of multiple TRPC channels in mammalian species and determination of the molecular identity of endolysosomal Ca2+ release channels activated by the Ca2+ mobilizing messenger, nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate. He has published more than 200 research papers, reviews, and book chapters and delivered lectures at many international conferences and symposia. Dr. Zhu has served on the editorial boards of Journal of Cellular Physiology, Pflügers Archiv, Biophysics Reports, Cells, and Molecular Pharmacology. He has been serving as a series editor of the CRC Methods in Signal Transduction book series since 2013. Dr. Zhu has chaired or co-chaired many international conferences, including the 17th International Symposium on Ca2+-Binding Proteins and Ca2+ Function in Health and Disease, Beijing, 2011, and the 2nd Gordon Research Conference on Organellar Channels and Transporters, Vermont, 2017.