University of Alberta and University of Calgary

Team:

• Dr. Jack A. Tuszynski, Physics, University of Alberta
• University of Calgary

This project will construct an integrated data base of ion channels, their chemical compound modulators and their distribution among the human tissues. This includes the heart and the key ion channel involved in cardiotoxicity, hERG.  The importance of the integrated data base is that the team can predict the distribution of target ion channels not only in the heart but elsewhere in the human body and hence achieve a more accurate representation of the drug action. Also, the heart itself has other important ion channels, not just hERG, and this data base provides the team with the required information on this aspect as well.

The project will focus on the proper representation of experimental data, namely IC50 and EC50 curves for the dose response of cells and tissues to pharmacological agents. The team will use an Ising model phenomenology developed in the physics of phase transitions instead of the standard (and very crude) exponential fitting procedure. The plan is to integrate this model into the dynamical extension of the data base.