Dr. Paul Riegelhaupt, assistant professor of anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, is the recipient of a Mentored Research Training Grant from the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) for his proposal, "Structural and functional characterization of the TREK1 K2P potassium channel, a target for chronic pain therapy."
The two-year, $175,000 grant will fund Dr. Riegelhaupt’s continuing investigation into the molecular structure of potassium channels. Dr. Crina Nimigean, associate professor of physiology and biophysics in anesthesiology, is the faculty mentor.
“Tandem pore potassium channels are interesting because they’re targets of anesthetics, and are important in pain processing,” said Dr. Riegelhaupt. “I study how these channels open and close, in an attempt to create drugs to therapeutically alter their activity.”
FAER's mission is to advance medicine through anesthesia research and education. The Mentored Research Training Grants help anesthesiologists develop the skills and preliminary data needed to become independent investigators.