Fernando Santana

I had a great time talking about the importance of storytelling our science at the @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social President’s Symposium today! Always extra fun with my little fan club tags along 🩷

Apply by Feb 23—Junior Specialist position in #PMB’s Belford Lab

David Clapham in a lab

After 50 years in science, former #HHMIInvestigator David Clapham’s advice is simple: “You have to see problem-solving as fun.” From training with Nobel laureates to deepening our understanding of ion channels & leading at HHMI, he retires with a lasting legacy: hhmi.news/3O3kYji.

Crafting tales of science with Theanne Griffith A lifelong passion for writing helped the neuroscientist land a book deal and publish 15 chapter books for early readers, covering topics ranging from what the cerebellum does to how a cake bakes.

A lifelong passion for writing helped rising star @doctheagrif.bsky.social land a book deal and publish 15 chapter books for early readers, covering topics ranging from what the cerebellum does to how a cake bakes.

By @avaskham.bsky.social

www.thetransmitter.org/craft-and-ca...

Excited to be speaking at this year’s Biophysical Society Presidential Symposium on the importance of communicating science to the public 👩🏾‍🔬🧫🧬🔬🥼🧪👩🏾‍🔬

Excitability isn't intrinsic to ion channels alone; it's an emergent property of the CMIC Axis. @vesselman.bsky.social & I link Capillaries, Mitochondria & Channels to function. Break the link, lose the function. doi.org/10.1113/JP28... @jphysiol.bsky.social

Sudha (@chakrapanilab.bsky.social) and Julio (@cvlab.bsky.social) are organizing the 2026 Ion Channel Gordon Research Conference: Ion Channels Across Scales — Bridging Molecular Events to Physiological Outcomes, to be held at Mount Holyoke College, July 12–17, 2026.

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We're incredibly excited to announce that Dr. Theanne Griffith @doctheagrif.bsky.social of #PMB Griffith Lab has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure, effective July 1, 2026! Congratulations, Theanne, on this well-earned achievement! 🎉🌟

Her lab research: www.thegriffithresearchgroup.com

The Transmitter’s Rising Stars of Neuroscience 2025 We recognize the outstanding achievements of 25 neuroscientists who stand to shape the field for years to come.

Congrats to my colleague Dr. Theanne Griffith @doctheagrif.bsky.social
for receiving a 2025 Rising Star of Neuroscience award! ⭐️ 🧠 ⭐️

www.thetransmitter.org/early-career...

Postdoctoral Scientist - Zhang Lab Primary Work Address: One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616 Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) advances the discovery and s...

🚨 We are recruiting postdocs! If you're interested in reproductive, stem cell/developmental biology, and/or women's health, please apply! 📝 Please repost! 🚩
More info here: hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

Arterial Myocyte Pannexin 1 Channel Controls Vascular Reactivity in Diabetic Hyperglycemia - PubMed These results suggest a key role for Panx1 in controlling ATP signaling through the P2Y_11L/AC5/AKAP5/PKA/Ca_V1.2 axis in arterial myocytes. This Panx1-led complex modulates cAMP levels, Ca_V1.2 activity, and vascular reactivity in response to diabetic hyperglycemia. Th …

The third episode of our podcast series just dropped:

navedolab.faculty.ucdavis.edu/podcasts/

This one focuses on our recent study examining vascular Panx1 channels and their role in vascular complications during diabetic hyperglycemia.

Get the paper here:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40636957/

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UTHealth Houston has an open search for a tenure-track faculty position. If you are ready (or know someone that is) to start looking for positions, this will be a great opportunity to join the Texas Medical Center. See flyer below. 1/2

Join me and make a gift! #CrowdfundUCDavis
t.co/zxc7VRKq4p

Happy to have started as an @hhmi.org Freeman Hrabowski Scholar! Incredibly grateful for this opportunity and am excited for some very cool new directions! We are *HIRING*, especially postdocs! Please reach out if you’re interested in uterine and pregnancy biology. Please repost!

Enhanced PIEZO1 function contributes to the pathogenesis of sickle cell disease | PNAS Sickle cell disease (SCD), an inherited blood disorder caused by a mutation in the β-globin gene, is characterized by sickle erythrocytes that are ...

Our new PNAS paper "Enhanced PIEZO1 function contributes to the pathogenesis of sickle cell disease" is out: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 1/3

Editorial on our JACC-EP paper (doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...) is out: Ed Lakatta’s “Mind Your ‘A Game’” (doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...) spotlights SAN capillary rarefaction → slower rate + more beat-to-beat variability, and lays out next tests (hypoxia vs demand; aging/sex). @jaccjournals.bsky.social

Major milestone achieved Wednesday: my very first grad student delivered his exit seminar. Dr. Cyrrus Espino is a science rock star and I’m lucky to have had the opportunity to contribute to his development. Very excited to see what’s to come in what will surely be a successful career. Cheers Doc!

Activity-driven proprioceptive synaptic refinement in the developing spinal cord by complement signaling mechanisms Proprioceptive group Ia afferents detect muscle stretch to guide effortless and purposeful movement and make monosynaptic connections with spinal α–motor neurons to mediate reflexes, such as the stret...

Happy to share the my lab's latest preprint, where we investigated sensorimotor circuit formation in the developing spinal cord. We show that proprioceptive axons target motor neurons in neighboring spinal segments to give rise to intersegmental reflex responses.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Beat–locked ATP microdomains in the sinoatrial node map a calcium–timed energetic hierarchy and regional pacemaker roles Pacemaker myocytes of the sinoatrial (SA) node initiate each heartbeat through coupled voltage and Ca2+ oscillators, but whether ATP supply is regulated on a beat–by–beat schedule in these cells has been unclear. Using genetically encoded sensors targeted to the cytosol and mitochondria, we tracked beat–resolved ATP dynamics in intact mouse SA node and isolated myocytes. Cytosolic ATP rose transiently with each Ca2+ transient and segregated into high– and low–gain phenotypes defined by the Ca2+–ATP coupling slope. Mitochondrial ATP flux adopted two stereotyped waveforms—Mode–1 ″gains″ and Mode–2 ″dips″. Within Mode–1 cells, ATP gains mirrored the cytosolic high/low–gain dichotomy; Mode–2 dips scaled linearly with Ca2+ load and predominated in slower-firing cells. In the intact node, high–gain/Mode–1 phenotypes localized to superior regions and low–gain/Mode–2 to inferior regions, paralleling gradients in rate, mitochondrial volume, and capillary density. Pharmacology placed the Ca2+ clock upstream of ATP production: the HCN channel blocker ivabradine slowed the ATP cycle without changing amplitude, whereas the SERCA pump inhibitor thapsigargin or the mitochondrial uncoupler FCCP abolished transients. Mode–2 recovery kinetics indicate slower ATP replenishment that would favor low–frequency, fluctuation–rich firing in a subset of cells. Together, these findings reveal beat-locked metabolic microdomains in which the Ca2+ clock times oxidative phosphorylation under a local O2 ceiling, unifying vascular architecture, mitochondrial organization, and Ca2+ signaling to coordinate energy supply with excitability. This energetic hierarchy helps explain why some SA node myocytes are more likely to set rate whereas others may widen bandwidth. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, https://ror.org/012pb6c26, HL168874 American Heart Association, https://doi.org/10.58275/AHA.25POST1378853.pc.gr.227467

New preprint: Beat-locked ATP imaging in mouse SA node reveals an energetic hierarchy—high-Ca-ATP gain cells set rate; low Ca-ATP gain cells expand bandwidth & stabilize under load. Pacemaking is a beat-to-beat division of labor @ucd-physiology.bsky.social. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Arterial Myocyte Pannexin 1 Channel Controls Vascular Reactivity in Diabetic Hyperglycemia | Circulation Research BACKGROUND: Diabetic hyperglycemia promotes vasoconstriction by activating an ATP-dependent P2Y11L (P2Y11-like receptor)/AC5 (adenylyl cyclase 5)/AKAP5 (A-kinase anchoring protein 5)/PKA (protein kina...

The official release of our manuscript examining arterial myocyte Panx1 role in diabetic vascular dysfunction is out! Massive effort to uncover new mechanisms underlying vascular disease. Power of science! @ucdavis.bsky.social, @ucdavispharm.bsky.social

www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/...

Congrats, @elisazhang.bsky.social!

Mouse Model of Surgical Uterine Injury and Subsequent Pregnancy Outcomes | Protocol Scientific Article | This protocol describes a procedure for inducing uterine injury in a mouse model, followed by downstream analyses during a subsequent...

We’re happy to share that our methods paper and video on our mouse uterine injury surgical procedure is now out in JoVE! First paper of the lab! Congrats to first author Nathan Ng! review.jove.com/t/67977/mous...

Congrats! Very insightful review.

📰Latest from our lab (Open Access)!

Brain Capillary Ion Channels: Physiology and Channelopathies

This review attempts to concisely cover a fast-evolving research field on channels in🧠capillaries
@apspublications.bsky.social

journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1...

First highlight...

Senator Capito started of the discussion saying that the bill contains AN INCREASE for NIH.

The details are not available, but the bill will be released ofter the hearing.

This is not a done-deal, but it does show where the Senate is on a bipartisan basis.

Current advances in large‐pore channels: From structure–function to physiology and disease Click on the article title to read more.

Large-pore channels: the Transformers of membrane proteins, versatile, dramatic, and never just selective or passive conduits.

Not just simple (typical) ion channels, they’re molecular multitaskers we’re beginning to comprehend.

Don’t miss the first-ever special issue dedicated to this!

Congratulations, @mfnavedo.bsky.social!

Thanks, @osamaharraz.bsky.social! Part of a larger puzzle we are putting together with this doi.org/10.1073/pnas... and this doi.org/10.1101/2025....

Exciting news! The EPIC/SGP Symposium at UC Davis will be accompanied by a special issue in the Journal of General Physiology. Stay tuned for more details about this incredible event celebrating cutting-edge research on ion channels!

Thanks, @nanocardiology.bsky.social! As William Osler said in 1908: "The tragedies of life are largely arterial." I agree with him.