Lab Information

The Van Horn lab is located in Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 1 (ISTB1) on the main Arizona State University Campus, in Tempe, Arizona. ISTB1 provides excellent wetlab space for our biochemistry and electrophysiology studies.

Our reserach interests are inherently interdiciplinary and we are affiliated with the Virginia G. Piper Center for Personalized Diagnostics, the Biodesign Institute, and the Magnetic Resonance Research Center.

A primary focus of the lab is the use of NMR to investigate the structure and dynamics of health related membrane proteins. We utilize NMR spectrometers housed in ISTB1 of the ASU campus. The ASU Magnetic Resonance Research Center (MRRC) houses a number of highfield magnets, including a Bruker 850 MHz (20 tesla) magnet, Varian 800 MHz (18.8 tesla) magnet, and a Bruker 600 MHz (14.1 tesla) maget. These three instruments have cryogenically cooled probes. The MRRC has capabilities to do solution and solid state NMR spectrocopy as well as microimaging. The MRRC also caters to small molecule NMR and includes a number of lower field instruments. 

Because the membrane protein complexes we study are relativley large for solution NMR the 850 MHz instrument is a workhorse for the lab (above left). It was installed in August 2012. We couple structural investigations with function and use the electrophysiology rig (above right) to probe the some function of the ion channels we study in the lab.