Chris Ahern

Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa

The Ahern lab works at the interface of membrane biophysics and chemical biology. Our particular expertise is in the synthesis and expression of tailor made non-natural amino acids and the application of chemical biological approaches to the study of membrane proteins. We have had success in expressing synthetic amino acids in many channel and receptor types for pharmacological studies of ligand and drug interactions as well as structure function relationships. We are currently developing synthetic amino acid spin labels and fluorophores for use in cellular and cell-free expression systems.