The Department of Physiology welcomes Fayal Abderemane-Ali, Ph.D. as the newest member of our faculty.
Dr. Abderemane-Ali is from Comoros off the east coast of Africa and attended the University of Nantes (France) where he received a bachelor's degree in Cell Biology and Physiology, followed by a PhD in Biophysics and Biochemistry. His interest in the modulation of ion channel function began with graduate studies on voltage sensor interactions with lipid signaling (PIP2) in K channels and extended to Ca2+-dependent modulation of gating.
Dr. Abderemane-Ali's graduate work culminated in a Fulbright Scholarship at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF that led to a postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Dan Minor. In elegant work to understand how venom-producing animals escape block of their own channels, Dr. Abderemane-Ali discovered a “molecular sponge” that sequesters toxin. His on-going studies are defining the structural interactions between modulators and channels at the atomic level and are leveraging this knowledge in the design of high-throughput screens to identify drugs that selectively block specific channel isoforms to target pathological signaling in pain, arrhythmia, or epilepsy.
