Clay Margrave Armstrong (born 1934)[1] is an American physiologist and a former student of Andrew Fielding Huxley.
Armstrong was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University in 1996, and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (shared with Bertil Hille and Roderick MacKinnon) in 1999,[3] for his seminal contributions to our understanding of the functions of ion channel proteins in nerve cells.
[5] Much of the current understanding of ion channel structure and function can be attributed to the notion proposed by Clay Armstrong (with Bertil Hille).
Armstrong provided the first general description of the K+ ion channel pore, including the fundamental ideas of a selectivity filter that can allow the rapid flow of K+ while excluding the flow of Na+ across the cell membrane; a wide inner vestibule; and a molecular gating element at the cytoplasmic side of the channel that controls the flow of ions through the pore.
[6] In addition, Armstrong's studies (with Francisco Bezanilla) that described the first measurement of charge movement associated with the activation of Na+-selective ion channels laid the groundwork for the current understanding of the molecular basis of electrical signaling in nerve and muscle cells.