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Who is Jeff Sands?
Researcher and Clinician

 

Jeff was born in Boston, MA. When he was young, he was fascinated by the manned space program and by the US going to the moon in the 1960s. That started his interest in science. In addition, he always enjoyed math. However, he found that he enjoyed applying math more than performing pure math.

Experiments Beat Modeling
When it came time to select a college, Jeff chose Harvard College. He chose Harvard because he felt that it would provide a top-notch liberal arts education while also providing a solid math and science education. While in college, Jeff began looking for a senior honor thesis project.

Originally, he wanted to perform mathematical modeling of proximal tubule function in the kidney. However, his advisor steered him to a renal physiologist at Harvard Medical School (Harvard had a Physiology Department in the 1970s). Jeff was allowed to design and execute his own experiments using electrophysiology. He found this experience to be extremely interesting and wanted to continue studying renal physiology. He knew this would mean either pursuing a Ph.D. or an M.D. degree. He graduated with his Bachelor’s degree in applied math in 1977.

M.D. or Ph.D.?
As he was trying to decide between pursuing an M.D. or a Ph.D. degree, Jeff’s advisors suggested he should think about getting an M.D. degree, since they thought that researchers with M.D. degrees had an easier time getting National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to support their research. Of course, as it turns out, the opposite is true. However, Jeff followed their advice and applied to medical school at Boston University School of Medicine.

Medical School
Once in medical school Jeff focused on internal medicine and then did a nephrology fellowship so that he could get back to doing renal physiology. He found that studying the urine concentrating mechanism was, for him, an excellent combination of applied math, mathematical modeling, and intriguing physiological questions.

After Dr. Sands graduated from Medical School in 1981, he first did an Internal Medicine residency at the University of Chicago. After 2 years, he moved to Bethesda, MD, to the NIH for a postdoctoral fellowship in renal physiology. In 1988, he did a clinical nephrology fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, as a condition of his joining the faculty at that school in 1989.

Being an M.D. and a Medical School Faculty Member
 

Currently, Dr. Sands holds the positions of Professor of Medicine and of Physiology, Director of the Renal Division, Executive Vice-Chair of the Department of Medicine, and Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Research at Emory University. His job involves research, teaching, patient care, and administration.

His major focus is on his NIH-funded renal physiology research. Dr. Sands’ research is directed at understanding the physiology of the renal inner medulla and the urine concentrating mechanism. He is currently studying the molecular physiology of urea transporters and water channels. Dr. Sands uses a combination of isolated perfused tubule studies to measure transport, antibodies to measure changes in abundance, phosphorylation, or location of the transport proteins in kidney tissue, and and cell culture models to explore signaling pathways that regulate transport. Studies are performed in rats treated to produce physiological and pathophysiological models of human conditions and in genetically engineered mice. Research areas being addressed include: 1) long-term regulation of urea transport proteins in rat models of human diseases, such as diabetes, and 2) signaling mechanisms by which vasopressin rapidly regulates urea transport.

Dr. Sands’ research group includes other faculty members, post-doctoral fellows, undergraduate students, and research specialists. Each summer, 2-3 undergraduate students spend 2-3 months in research working with various members of the “Urea Group” team. In addition, Dr. Sands gives lectures to medical students and teaches students, residents, and fellows on rounds in the teaching hospitals. As Director of the Renal Division, Dr. Sands leads a group of 40 faculty and 20 fellows. The majority of Dr. Sands administrative activities focus on research.

For Fun
Dr. Sands enjoys playing tennis and bridge, watching sports, and doing things with his kids.

He also is active in his professional societies (American Physiological Society and American Society for Nephrology). For APS, Dr. Sands has dual roles: that of Editor of American Journal of Physiology: Renal Physiology and an elected member of the APS Council, which governs the Society.

Advice for a New Investigator
Focus on getting one grant and publishing many papers. In my opinion, too many new investigators get caught up in trying to get multiple grants at the expense of not publishing enough papers. If you focus on publishing, the grants will follow. As my mentor told me, the only good data is published data. 

Recent Publications
1. Kim YM, Kim W, Lee HW, Kim J, Kwon HM, Klein JD, Sands JM, Kim DU. Urea and NaCl regulate UT-A1 urea transporter in opposing directions via TonEBP pathway during osmotic diuresis. Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. 296: F67-F77, 2009.

2. Feng X, Huang H, Yang Y, Fröhlich O, Klein JD, Sands JM, Chen G. Caveolin-1 directly interacts with UT-A1 urea transporter: the role of caveolae/lipid rafts in UT-A1 regulation at the cell membrane. Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. 296: F1514-F1520, 2009.

3. Mistry AC, Mallick R, Klein JD, Weimbs T, Sands JM, Fröhlich O. Syntaxin specificity of aquaporins in the inner medullary collecting duct. Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. 297: F292-F300, 2009.

4. Froehlich O, Aggarwal D, Klein JD, Kent KJ, Yang Y, Gunn RB, Sands JM. Stimulation of UT-A1-mediated transepithelial urea flux in MDCK cells by lithium. Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. 294: F518-F524, 2008.

5. Bedford JJ, Leader JP, Jing R, Walker LJ, Klein JD, Sands JM, Walker RJ. Amiloride restores renal medullary osmolytes in lithium-induced nephrogenic diabetes insipidus. Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. 294: F812-F820, 2008.

6. Blount MA, Sands JM, Kent KJ, Smith TD, Price SR, Klein JD. Candesartan augments compensatory changes in medullary transport proteins in the diabetic rat kidney. Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. 294: F1448-F1452, 2008.

7. Blount MA, Mistry AC, Froehlich O, Price SR, Chen G, Sands JM, Klein JD. Phosphorylation of UT-A1 urea transporter at serines 486 and 499 is important for vasopressin-regulated activity and membrane accumulation. Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. 295: F295-F299, 2008.

8. Blessing NW, Blount MA, Sands JM, Martin CF, Klein JD. Urea transporters UT-A1 and UT-A3 accumulate in the plasma membrane in response to increased hypertonicity. Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. 295: F1336 - F1341, 2008.

9. Chen G, Huang H, Fröhlich O, Yang Y, Klein JD, Price SR, Sands JM. MDM2 E3 ubiquitin ligase mediates UT-A1 urea transporter ubiquitination and degradation. Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. 295: F1528 - F1534, 2008.

10. Zhang Y, Sands JM, Kohan DE, Nelson RD, Martin CF, Carlson NG, Kamerath CD, Ge Y, Klein JD, Kishore BK. Potential role of purinergic signaling in urinary concentration in inner medulla: insights from P2Y2 receptor gene knockout mice. Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. 295: F1715-F1724, 2008.

11. Jeon US, Han K-H, Park S-H, Lee SD, Sheen MR, Jung J-Y, Kim WY, Sands JM, Kim J, Kwon HM. Downregulation of renal TonEBP in hypokalemic rats. Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. 293: F408-F415, 2007.

12. Blount MA, Klein JD, Martin CF, Tchapyjnikov D, Sands JM. Forskolin stimulates phosphorylation and membrane accumulation of UT-A3. Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. 293: F1308-F1313, 2007.