Design and construction of conformational biosensors to monitor ion channel activation: A prototype FlAsH/BRET-approach to Kir3 channels

What is it about?

We designed a biosensor that allows us to measure the opening and closing of a potassium channel (Kir3.1) that has been implicated in pain relief by opioid analgesics.

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Why is it important?

This paper describes the how we built a range of biosensors to measure channel opening using fluorescent probes attached directly to two parts of the channel, without destroying the channel activity, then measuring how these two probes move in relation to one another. The way in which these probes specific interact had not been shown before.