June 2023

Dr. Reinhold Penner is the Director of Research at The Center for Biomedical Research at The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. He obtained his PhD from the University of Giessen, Germany, in 1986 and spent his Postdoc time until 1990 in the lab of Nobel Laureate Dr. Erwin Neher at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. He then became a group leader in Dr. Neher’s department where he worked for 8 years before relocating to Honolulu in 1997. Here he established the Center for Biomedical Research at The Queen’s Medical Center, where he currently serves as the Director of Research. 

He is internationally recognized for his seminal work on ion channels in cell biology with extensive research experience in the areas of immunology, neuroscience, and cardiovascular research, employing methodologies of biophysics, molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology. His work has contributed to the understanding of store-operated calcium entry and led to the discovery the Calcium Release-Activated Calcium (CRAC) channels. His laboratory also contributed to the discovery and characterization of several TRP channels, including TRPM2, TRPM4, TRPM5, and TRPM7. His group is now involved in drug discovery efforts for a range of ion channels involved in inflammation, autoimmune diseases, pain, diabetes, and cancer.

More details can be found here.