Comments by Richard W. Tsien, Ji-Fang Zhang, and Patrick T. Ellinor, Stanford University Medical Center
According to Richard Tsien, a professor of molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford University Medical School, the large number of references to this paper reflects the "wide interest in calcium channels and the roles they play as essential links between the electrical activity of cells and their biochemical activation."
"In the last few years, it has become increasingly clear that there is great diversity among voltage-gated calcium channels," comments Ji-Fang Zhang, a postdoctoral fellow in Tsien's laboratory. Zhang stresses that this paper marks a significant step forward because "it focuses on this diversity and shows a very neat convergence of work in molecular biology and electrophysiology.
APPROPRIATE CHANNELS: from left, Richard Tsien, Patrick Ellinor, and Ji-Fang Zhang cloned novel calcium ion channels from a subfamily of neuronal channels that are important for synpatic transmission, as ...
