Postdoctoral & Graduate Publications
Ahern, C.A*, Eastwood, A.L., Dougherty, D.A. and Horn, R. Electrostatic contributions of aromatic residues in the local anesthetic receptor in voltage-gated sodium channels. (2008), Circulation Research, 102: 86-94.
Ahern, C.A. The Secret Lives of Voltage-Sensors. (2007), J. Physiol. 583; 813-814. Commentary.
Santarelli, V.P., Eastwood, A.L., Dougherty, D.A., Ahern, C.A. and Horn, R. Probing pore block of a voltage-gated sodium channel with unnatural amino acids. (2007), Biophysical Journal, 93: 2341-2349.
Santarelli, V.P., Eastwood, A.L., Dougherty, D.A., Horn, R. and Ahern, C.A. A cation-pi interaction with tyrosine 401 is the basis for tetrodotoxin sensitivity in the voltage-gated sodium channel NaV1.4. (2007) J. Biol. Chem.
Ahern, C.A, Eastwood, A.L., Lester, H.A., Dougherty, D.A. and Horn, R. A cation:pi interaction between extracellular TEA and an aromatic residue in potassium channels. J. Gen. Physiol. (2006),128(6):649-657.
Ahern, C.A. and Horn, R. Focused electric field across the voltage sensor of a potassium channel. Neuron, (2005), 48 (1), 25-29.
Ding, S., Ingleby, L., Ahern, C.A., and Horn R. Investigating the putative hinge in Shaker potassium channels J. Gen. Physiol. (2005), 126(3):213-226.
Ahern, C.A., Zhang, J.F., Woolkalis, M.J., and Horn, R. Modulation of the Cardiac Sodium Channel NaV1.5 by the Src Family Tyrosine Kinase Fyn. (2005), Circulation Research 2005 96:991 – 998.
Ahern, C.A. and Horn, R. Stirring up controversy with a voltage sensor paddle. TRENDS in Neurosciences 2004, Vol 27, No. 6: 303-307, Invited review.
Ahern, C.A. and Horn, R. Specificity of charge-carrying residues in the voltage sensor of potassium channels. (2004), J Gen Physiol. Mar;123(3):205-16
Ahern, C. A., Sheridan, D.C., Cheng, W., Mortenson, L., Allen, P.D. and Coronado, R. Ca2+ current and charge movements in skeletal myotubes promoted by the b subunit of the dihydropyridine receptor in the absence of ryanodine receptor type 1. (2003), Biophys J., 84(2 Pt 1):942-59.
Ahern, C. A, Arikkath, J., Vallejo, P., Gurnett, C., Powers, P., Campbell, K.P., and Coronado, R. Intramembrane charge movements and excitation-contraction coupling expressed by two-domain fragments of the Ca2+ channel. (2001), Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 98 (12) 6935-6940.
Publications 2009
Ahern, C.A. and Kobertz W. (2009), “Chemical Tools Used to Tinker with Voltage-gated Ion Channels”. Biochemistry, 48(3):517-26, Invited review. Top 10 downloaded Biochemistry reviews of 2009.
Sarhan, M.F., Van Petegem, F. and Ahern, C.A. A conserved double tyrosine motif in the cardiac sodium channel domain III-IV linker underlies Ca2+/calmodulin binding and inactivation gating. (2009), J. Biol. Chem. 284: 33265-33274.
Ahern, C.A*, Eastwood, A.L., Dougherty, D.A. and Horn, R. An electrostatic interaction between TEA and an introduced aromatic promotes spring-in-the-door Inactivation in Shaker Potassium Channels. (2009), Vol. 134, No. 6, 461-469 J. Gen. Physiol. * Co-published with an accompanying J. Gen. Physiol. Commentary.
Publications 2010
Lakowski, T., Hart, P., Ahern, C., Martin, N. and Frankel, A. Substituted Arginyl Peptide Inhibitors of Protein Arginine N-Methyltransferases. (2010), ACS Chem. Biol., 2010, 5 (11), pp 1053–1063.
Publications 2011
Pless, S.A., Leung, A. and Ahern, C.A. (2011) Contributions of conserved residues at the gating interface of glycine receptors. J. Biol. Chem. 286(40):35129-36
Pless, SA., Galpin, JG., Niciforovic, A. and Ahern, C.A. (2011) Contributions of Counter-Charge in a Potassium Channel Voltage-Sensing Domain. Nature Chemical Biology,7(9):617-23. Cover article.
Lamoureux, Z., Xiong, P., Goodchild, S., Ahern, C.A., and Fedida, D. (2011) Blockade of permeation by potassium but normal gating of the G628S non-conducting hERG channel mutant. Biophysical Journal. 101(3):662-70.
Pless, SA., Galpin, JG., Frankel, A., and Ahern, C.A. Molecular Basis for Class Ib Anti-Arrhythmic Inhibition of Cardiac Sodium Channels. (2011), Nature Communications, 2:351. doi: 10.1038/ncomms1351.
Ricardo E. Rivera-Acevedo, Stephan A. Pless, Christopher A. Ahern and Stephan K. W. Schwarz, The quaternary lidocaine derivative, QX-314, exerts biphasic effects on TRPV1 channels in vitro. (2011), Anesthesiology. 114(6):1425-34.
Lee, Sarhan, M.F., Ahern, C.A. and Ruben P. The biophysical costs associated with tetrodotoxin resistance in the garter snake. (2011), Journal of Comparative Physiology. 197(1):33-43.
Publications 2012
Ahern, C.A., Lobo, P., and Van Petegem, F. (2012). Seeing the forest through the trees: towards a unified view of the physiological regulation of sodium channels by calcium. Biophys J. 103(11):2243-51. Top Ranked Review of 2012 in the Biophysical Journal.
Lacroix, J., Stephan A Pless, S.A., Maragliano, L., Campos, F.V., Galpin, J.D., Ahern, C.A., Roux, B. and Bezanilla, F. (2012) Intermediate state trapping of a voltage-sensor. J. Gen. Physiol. 140(6):635-52. Cover article.
Goodchild, S.J., H. Xu, Z. Es-Salah-Lamoureux, C.A. Ahern, D. Fedida. (2012). Basis for allosteric open-state stabilization of voltage-gated potassium channels by intracellular cations. J. Gen. Physiol. 140(5):495-511. Cover article.
Lee S, Goodchild SJ, Ahern CA. (2012). Molecular and functional determinants of local anesthetic inhibition of NaChBac. (2012). Channels. Sept 1;6(5).
Somasekharan SP, Stoynov N, Rotblat B, Leprivier G, Galpin JD, Ahern CA, Foster LJ, Sorensen PH. (2012). Identification and quantification of newly synthesized proteins translationally regulated by YB-1 using a novel Click-SILAC approach. J. Proteomics. 2012 Sep 5. pii: S1874-3919(12)00637-9
Ricardo E. Rivera-Acevedo, Stephan A. Pless, Stephan K.W. Schwarz and Christopher A. Ahern, (2012) Extracellular quaternary ammonium blockade of transient receptor vallinoid type 1 in Xenopus laevis oocyte. Molecular Pharmacology. Dec;82(6):1129-35
Lee S, Goodchild SJ, and Ahern CA. (2012) Local anesthetic inhibition of a bacterial sodium channel. J. Gen. Physiol. 139(6):507-16
Sarhan, M.F., Van Petegem*, F. and Ahern, C.A*. (2012) Crystallographic basis for Ca2+ regulation of sodium channels. 109(9):3558-63 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. *co-corresponding authors
Publications 2013
Pless, SA., Galpin, JG., Niciforovic, A. Nunez, J.J, Kurata, H.A and Ahern, C.A. (2013) A novel mechanism for fine-tuning open state stability in a voltage-gated potassium channel. Nature Communications. 4, Article number: 1784 doi:10.1038/ncomms2761
Pless S.A and Ahern C.A. (2013) Unnatural Amino Acids as Probes of Ligand-Receptor Interactions and Their Conformational Consequences. Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology. 53:211-29.
Ricardo E. Rivera-Acevedo, Stephan A. Pless, Stephan K.W. Schwarz and Christopher A. Ahern, (2013) Expression-dependent pharmacology of transient receptor potential vanilloid subtype 1 channels in Xenopus laevis oocytes. Channels. (1):47-50. doi: 10.4161/chan.23105.
