Dr. Reinhold Penner is the Director of Research at The Center for Biomedical Research at The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. He worked at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany for 12 years and relocated to Honolulu in 1997 to establish the Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Signaling at The Queen’s Medical Center. He is internationally recognized for 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, diabetes, and cancer.