Biogenesis and trafficking of ATP-sensitive potassium channels

Blanche Schwappach

Dr. Schwappach did her PhD at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology in Hamburg. During her postdoctoral time at the University of California, San Francisco, she developed a quantitative assay for cell surface expression of membrane proteins that is now widely used in the field of ion channel trafficking. In 2000, Dr. Schwappach worked as a group leader at the Centre for Molecular Biology, University of Heidelberg. In 2007, Schwappach was awarded a Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship and now works at the Faculty of Life Sciences of the University of Manchester.

One of the main topics of interest in the Schwappach lab is the sorting of ion channels to the cell surface. Following the characterization of an arginine-based ER localization signal, her team is now using quantitative assays to study COPII budding and protein interactions of COPI, COPII and 14-3-3 proteins. Dr. Schwappach’s research focus is on the ATP-sensitive potassium channel, which is studied in specialized mammalian cell types to tackle how basic cellular machinery (the ER-Golgi shuttle) is adapted to physiological requirements.