Ramón Latorre

Chilean biophysicist and cellular physiologist Ramón Latorre is Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Neuroscience and a professor at the neuroscience Institute at the University of Valparaiso, Chile. He is also a Research Scholar affiliated with the University of Chicago, and an adjunct professor at University of California, Los Angeles.

Latorre has been recognized for his investigations in the field of the ionic channels of cellular membranes. His research interest is focused on a class of integral membrane proteins denominated ion channels, which mediate all electrical signals in our nervous system. Ion channels can have two configurations: conductive (open) or nonconductive (closed). In its conductive configuration, a channel protein mediates the transfer of millions of ions per second across the membrane. Through detailed studies of a calcium-activated voltage-dependent potassium channel, he and his coworkers developed a kinetic model able to account for the voltage- and calcium-dependence of these channels. They also demonstrated the multi-ion nature of these channels and its implication for selectivity and conduction. More recently, his laboratory made discoveries that might help demystify the nature of estrogen membrane receptors.

Latorre plays an active role in numerous scientific societies and serves on the editorial boards of some of the most prestigious scientific journals.  

Latorre was a cofounder of the Center for Scientific Studies of Santiago in 1984 as part of restoring academic and research entities in Chile.

He graduated from the University of Chile and completed his postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health. From 1977 to 1983, he served as assistant and then associate professor of Physiology and Biophysics at Harvard Medical School before returning to Chile to assume a professorial appointment. During his visit at Harvard Medical School, he taught Ion Channel Biophysics.