Conference,

Molecular Dynamics of Biological Ion Channels

, , and .
(December 2005)
DOI: 10.1109/ISDRS.2005.1596110

Abstract

Ion channels are pores through a cell membrane that allow the exchange of specific ions across them. Understanding the atomistic-level ionic flow through these biological channels is crucial for pharmacology and drug discovery. In addition, the marriage of biological cells and nanoelectronics offers the possibility of new devices with the potential to go beyond the limitations of CMOS technology. The study of ion channels is needed to model the interface between nanoelectronics and biological cells. Till recently, theoretical analysis of ion transport has been limited to low-resolution continuum diffusion-based or kinetic-based models. Such analytical models fail to include the factors affecting the ionic conduction through ion channels. In this paper, an electro-diffusion model is presented which extends previous models to incorporate the effects of electric field, energy barrier, and rate-limited association/dissociation of ions with protein charges inside the channel. We derive the probability density function (p.d.f.), the correlation function, and the spectral density of ion number fluctuation.

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