In the Laboratory of Neurophysiology within the Faculty of Biology, the activities of the EvoM8 project are underway.
TRPM8 ion channels from three reptile species are heterologously expressed and functionally compared with mammalian and avian counterparts, testing thermal activation and pharmacology of these ion channels.
Establishing the molecular determinants for sensitivities to some monoterpenoids, specifically in avian TRPM8, is another goal of this project. We will investigate this by predicting in silico the amino acids involved in the docking of specific TRPM8 agonists to the channel protein and then test in vitro mutants of human TRPM8.
The expected results will help us better understand the human receptors for cooling and menthol, but also how evolutionary distant animals sense temperature and the small molecules that produce cold sensations.
