Hosted by Bimal Desai, Zhaozhu Qiu, PhD, is Associate Professor of Physiology, Neuroscience and Neurosurgery and the principal investigator for the Qiu Lab at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

His research focuses on an important class of cell-membrane embedded proteins, called ion channels, which are essential gatekeepers that control the flow of ions and molecules in and out of cells. His lab discovered a long-sought protein, the proton-activated chloride channel (PAC), that could protect against the tissue-damaging effects of stroke, heart attack, cancer and inflammation and could provide a new drug target for potential therapies for stroke and other diseases. His team is currently engaged in research on ion channels that conduct chloride, the only major negatively charged ion in the body.