Study of a quantum model for potassium ion channels

• Grant number: 12/12624-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: September 01, 2012
• End date: January 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - General Physics
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Luis Semião da Silva
• Grantee: Alvaro Andres Cifuentes Garcia
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Transport phenomena in biological systems have been often modeled as classical random processes where quantum coherence and entanglement did not seem to play an important role. Giving the great complexity in these systems, it was believed that quantum effects would not survive during the time taken for the transport to be completed. One recent experimental demonstration of quantum coherence in excitonic transport in photosynthetic complexes has changed this paradigm and has forced a critical reevaluation of traditional transport (classical) models for these systems. Since then, there has been a rapid increase in the number of experimental and theoretical studies investigating the relevance of quantum effects in the explanation of functional properties of these systems.This main goal of this masters' project is to study in great detail the role of different physical components that constitutes a recently proposed quantum model for ionic transport by channels in the cellular membrane. This model correlates quantum coherence and ionic conductivity in the selection filter of this channel. In this project, many different operation regimes will be explored such as variations in the ionic concentrations, variations in decoherence rates and other aspects not studied in the original paper. This study will then contribute to a better understanding of the model as well as to provide ideas for the proposal of artificial devices that may make use of the same physics involved in ion channels for the realization of efficient transport of electric charge, energy or even quantum information. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CIFUENTES, A. A.; SEMIAO, F. L.. Quantum model for a periodically driven selectivity filter in a K+ ion channel. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS B-ATOMIC MOLECULAR AND OPTICAL PHYSICS, v. 47, n. 22, NOV 28 2014. (12/12624-6)