In the introduction of a paper published in 2001, Dr. Juan Carlos Gomora and colleagues at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville pointed out that past studies were often done in isolated neurons that had lost most of their T-type channels. Using cloned α1G, α1H, and α1I T-type calcium channels, Gomora's team found that ethosuximide blocked the channels with an IC50 of 12 ± 2 mmol/L and that of "N"-desmethylmethsuximide (the active metabolite of mesuximide) is 1.95 ± 0.19 mmol/L for α1G, 1.82 ± 0.16 mmol/L for α1I, and 3.0 ± 0.3 mmol/L for α1H. It was suggested that the blockade of open channels is facilitated by ethosuximide's physically plugging the channels when current flows inward.