Job title |
Associate Professor |
Laboratory |
Laboratory of Structural Physiology(Cellular and Structural Physiology Institute) |
Room |
Pharmaceutical Sciences Building, Room 208 |
E-mail address |
kabe at cespi.nagoya-u.ac.jp |
Outside line |
+81-52-747-6838 |
Fields of research |
Electron crystallography, membrane proteins, P-type ATPases |
Outline of research
In response to food intake, the pH in our stomach decreases to around 1. This highly acidic environment, generated by the gastric proton pump (H+,K+-ATPase), is indispensable for digestion, but in some cases it can cause gastric ulcer or gastroesophageal-reflux disease. By determining structures of proton pumps by electron crystallography, I hope to address the unique mechanisms by which acid-suppressing drugs block proton secretion, and to determine how the gastric proton pump manages in such an acidic environment, conditions that are not encountered by any other membrane pump in nature.