Protein designers have now created new calcium channels, built bottom-up from scratch. Naturally occurring ion channels, present in the membrane of excitable cells, generate electrical impulses. These electrophysiological signals help direct muscle contraction, the heartbeat and the release of neurotransmitters. Synthetic ion channels could serve as tools for biomedical research, from neuroscience experiments to heart biology models and synthetic cell signaling circuits. 

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a species of bacteria that, when organized on a surface to form a community known as a biofilm, causes lethal infections in cystic fibrosis patients and resists treatment with antibiotics.

A UCLA-led research team has uncovered a key mechanism controlling initial biofilm formation in Pseudomonas, in which cells sense and follow sugar-based trails secreted by other bacteria to organize themselves into a colony on a surface.

This discovery could lead to treatments for deadly infections in people with cystic fibrosis and in hospitalized patients on ventilators, as well as solutions for problems in industry that are rooted in the presence of bacterial biofilms.