SYNTHETIC ION CHANNELS

Membrane-bound ion channels play an important role in biological syste ms. They are involved in key processes such as neural signal transduct ion, muscle contraction, and vision. The understanding of the structur e of natural ion channels is growing, but it is still far from satisfa ctory. Synthetic ion channels can have the advantage of a well-defined conformation of the active state. This information facilitates the st udy of the structure-function relationships of their biological counte rparts.