Biomedical Frontiers: SPRING/SUMMER 1997, Vol.4, No.3
Special Section: Alzheimer's Research
Channel Mutations

A number of diseases have been linked to channel defects, including hyper- and hypokalemic periodic paralysis, pseudohypoaldosteronism, and Liddle's syndrome. Could Alzheimer's disease also have a connection to a channel defect? The research of Dr. Martin Chalfie, professor of biological sciences, may soon provide an answer.

Dr. Chalfie studies genes that control channels in C. elegans. When a genetic defect causes cell channels to remain open all the time, the cells lyse. By searching for this cell lysis phenotype, Dr. Chalfie has been able to identify genes involved in channel defects. "There is no clear evidence that Alzheimer's disease is the result of a channel defect and no one is saying that cells are lysing in Alzheimer's," he says. "But channel defects can cause nerve cell death. Our work is directed toward identifying cellular components that can be mutated to cause neurodegenerative disease."

So far, under a project grant from the Alzheimer's Center, Dr. Chalfie has identified almost 50 new mutant strains of C. elegans that have a lysing cell defect. He is now working to identify the genes involved.