Rate My Professor Ana Fernández-Mariño

Ana I. Fernández-Mariño, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, where she leads the Fernandez-Mariño Lab focused on ion channel biophysics. Prior to her faculty appointment, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), contributing to groundbreaking research in the laboratory of Kenton J. Swartz. Possessing a PhD and MSc, her academic journey has been marked by expertise in electrophysiology and structural biology. Fernández-Mariño's research elucidates the molecular mechanisms underlying the function of voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels, essential for regulating membrane excitability in excitable cells. She employs state-of-the-art methods including cryo-EM for high-resolution structures, patch-clamp electrophysiology for functional assays, mass spectrometry, and computational simulations to dissect gating, inactivation, and modulation processes.

Her prolific publication record includes first-author and co-first-author papers in top-tier journals, amassing over 414 citations. Key contributions encompass the "Structural basis of fast N-type inactivation in Kv channels" (Nature, 2025), revealing a novel plug mechanism distinct from the ball-and-chain model, involving N-terminal tail insertion modulated by RNA editing and external potassium; "Inactivation of the Kv2.1 channel through electromechanical coupling" (Nature, 2023); "Eukaryotic Kv channel Shaker inactivates through selectivity filter dilation rather than collapse" (Science Advances, 2023); "Structures of the T cell potassium channel Kv1.3 with immunoglobulin modulators" (Nature Communications, 2022); and "Gating interaction maps reveal a noncanonical electromechanical coupling mode in the Shaker K+ channel" (Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2018). These studies have profound implications for understanding channelopathies, epileptic encephalopathies, and developing therapeutics targeting specific channel states. Actively involved in graduate training programs in Pharmacology, Neuroscience, and Biomedical Sciences at CU Anschutz, she supervises PhD students and recruits postdoctoral researchers, promoting diversity and equity in science.