Congratulations! You have just been promoted to chief scientist (and bottle-washer) for Hot Heads Biotech, Inc. (HHI). HHI is focused on discovery research of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family of channels. TRPs are non-selective cation channels that are found in sensory neurons and involved in temperature sensation. HHI has been approached by Nintendo to help in the development of their new virtual realty gaming system which includes their proprietary HEAT technology. HEAT is a system that allows for the controlled release of a chemical agent to the finger of the gamer which gives the sensation of touching a hot or cold object. Nintendo would like HHI to identify a series of chemical agents that can stimulate the sensation of different temperatures. Your job is to put together a project proposal describing how HHI will approach this issue. Your primary goal is to design an experimental setup and types of experiment that HHI will need to conduct.

Some notes about TRP channels:

TRP channels are thermal sensitive channels that are activated at certain threshold temperature as indicated in the chart. Activation leads to cation flow resulting in the initiation of an action potential in the neuron. There is precedent as noted in the chart for chemical agents being able to activate these channels.