” Excitable cells such as cardio myocytes and neurons have the ability to change in a controlled manner their membrane potential eliciting an action potential. Voltage-dependent and -independent ionchannels are the molecular regulators underlying this cellular excitability. My research is specialized in structure-function analysis and pharmacology of ion channels using electrophysiological and optical techniques. This includes the patch-clamp technique in its different settings that can be combined with imaging techniques to do Ca2+ imaging simultaneously or performing voltage-clamp fluorometry. The specialized electrophysiological techniques are complemented with a fully equipped wet-lab for doing standard biochemical and molecular biology work to clone channels, create channels mutants, detect protein levels, co-IP for studying channel complexes, do transient transfection of cells or create stable cell lines. ”