Originally from Chengdu, China, Feng Xue did his MSc at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has a background in ion channels and we look forward to having him join our ASIC team for the next three years – welcome and we look forward to having you around!

We are delighted to welcome Alexandru Palade to the team as the new laboratory technician intern  – we look forward to having him around!

Congrats to lab almuni Tim, current PhD student Zeshan, as well as our collaborators Emelie, Celine and Toby in Melbourne on this work on determinants of ion selectivity ASIC1a- and ASIC2a-containing acid-sensing ion channels – now online at JGP.

Congrats to Stephanie for being selected for an oral presentation at the Ligand Recognition and Molecular Gating GRS in Lucca, Italy in March! She will be presenting some of our latest work on neuropeptide regulation of ASICs – some of which can be already previewed on bioRxiv

As the year is drawing to a close, I would like to thank all lab members, our collaborators near and far, as well as our CBP neighbours for all their work, support and inspiration throughout 2019 – this really was an exciting year and we look forward to a fun and successful year 2020!

Congrats to Chow for being selected for a platform talk (and session chair) at the next Biophysical Society Meeting in San Diego, where he will be talking about his latest finding on the sodium leak channel complex. Additionally, he also secured a travel grant to attend the meeting – well done!

After very exciting visits to Cornell, UPenn and U of T (Houston), Stephan had the honor to be part of the inaugural Austin Conference on Ion Channels (and Transporters), which provided a fantastic update on the latest developments in an exciting field – a huge thank you to all hosts and organisers!

We currently have a postdoc position available for a project on split intein-mediated semi-synthesis of ion channel. The ideal candidate has experience in ion channels, molecular/chemical biology, protein engineering and electrophysiology. Email your motivation letter, along with CV (incl contact info for 3 referees) and publication list to contact@theplesslab.com

A lab member since 2015, Matthias has been instrumental in many projects in the lab and will be sorely missed. In particular, and thanks to his admirable patience, perseverance and technical ability, he helped establish a number of different (and difficult) approaches in the lab. We are very grateful for his many contributions and wish him all the best for his next career stage and beyond.

Check out our latest manuscript on bioRxiv, in which we outline how and where the neuropetide big  dynorphin exerts its effects on ASIC1a. For this project, we have employed the widest array of approaches to date, including electrophysiology, voltage-clamp fluorometry, peptide synthesis, CRISPR and non-canonical amino acids cross linkers. Congratulations to our former PhD students (now postdocs) Christian and Nina and the rest of the team that contributed to this grand effort – in particular to our collaborators from the Bennett and Strømgaard groups.