7th symposium of the Research Training Group “Chemical Biology of Ion Channels”

The 7th symposium of the Research Training Group “Chemical Biology of Ion Channels”, held on February 26th at the University of Münster, was a great success. The event provided a dynamic platform for stimulating discussions and intensive scientific exchange.

Distinguished speakers from a range of disciplines—including physiology, pharmacology, chemistry, in-silico/biophysics and the pharmaceutical industry—presented their research and perspectives. The talks were met with excellent feedback and sparked numerous interdisciplinary conversations. A particularly valuable aspect of the symposium was the strong participation of associated research groups and various departments, which further enriched the exchange of ideas. Overall, the event once again highlighted the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration in advancing the understanding of ion channels.

Highlight was the poster session by the doctoral candidates and postdocs of Chembion and associated working groups. Three posters were awarded poster prizes, sponsored by the Förderverein Epilepsieforschung an der Universität Münster e. V. Congratulations to the winners of the poster awards: Marie Leusmann, Yuan Chang-Halabi and Joana Massa.

Special thanks to Prof. Dr. Evan Miller from the University of California, Berkeley (US) for his talk “Fiat Lux! Using chemistry to illuminate cellular physiology”, Dr. Nadia Lybøl von Schoubye from Boehringer Ingelheim (Germany) for her talk “Addressing ion channel targets in preclinical pharmaceutical research”, Prof. Dr. Maurizio Taglialatela from the University of Naples Federico II (Italy) for his talk “KCNQ-related disorder: from genotype-phenotype correlations to novel pharmacological approaches ”, and Prof. Dr. Lucie Delemotte from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) for her talk “Voltage-gated ion channel activation and gating: insights from a family-wide molecular dynamics investigation”.

We would also like to thank the organizing team Nora Spieker, Vivian Meiritz, Joana Massa, Hanna Kuß and Wenxin Felix Zhu, who were responsible for this great day of scientific exchange. We are already looking forward to the coming symposium in spring 2027.