Calcium influx is a universal signal that controls communication, membrane voltage, cell growth and protein synthesis among many other cell functions. In neurons, calcium influx is tightly coupled to electrical activity. Voltage-gated calcium channels (CaV) are the ion channels that sense the voltage and allow calcium flux through their pores. CaV come in many flavors and each CaV subtype has a specific sublocalization in neurons that closely relates to its function. In our lab we study how hormones, neurotransmitters and their cell surface receptors (GPCRs) exert the complex duty of delivering CaV to specific sites in neurons and control their function.
Dr. Jesica Raingo is a researcher and biology professor from La Plata (Argentina). She earned her PhD from University of La Plata in 2004 and moved to the United States, where she worked as a postdoc in the Lipscombe Lab (Brown University) and the Kavalali Lab (UT Southwestern) for six years. She is an electrophysiologist and her main interest is to understand how neurons communicate. Currently she is an Independent Researcher at CONICET and she leads a research team of four graduate students and a lab manager. She is passionate about teaching science skills to young researchers, setting and discussing hypothesis and ideas. When she is not in the lab she likes bicycling, reading, and spending time with her kids and dogs.