Kay Lund (Pauline Kay Lund) became Editor in Chief of the American Journal of Physiology–Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology in July 2009. She trained at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England, receiving a B.S. in Physiology in 1975 and a Ph.D. in Gastrointestinal Physiology in 1979. In 1979 she braved the Atlantic to do postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School with the goal of combining physiological approaches and molecular biology. In 1982, Kay was recruited to the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill as an Assistant Professor in Physiology. She currently holds the endowed Sarah Graham Kenan Professorship in Cell and Molecular Physiology at UNC-Chapel Hill and holds joint appointments as Professor in Nutrition and Pediatrics.
Dr. Lund’s research focuses on normal and aberrant growth of the gastrointestinal tract with an emphasis on hormone and growth factor signaling. She is interested in molecular and physiological mechanisms that permit beneficial growth effects on gastrointestinal epithelium or mesenchyme but protect against excessive growth that may lead to cancer or pathophysiological conditions such as fibrosis. A hallmark of her research is to combine physiological, molecular and cellular approaches in animal models of disease and to translate basic research findings to the clinic. She has published studies on nearly every GI-related organ system including stomach, colon, pancreas and liver, and has also conducted neurobiology research comparing brain-gut peptides and growth factors. Her recent work has explored novel roles of suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) in the GI tract as tumor suppressors and inhibitors of fibrosis. She is also pursuing research on growth factor regulation of stem cells and innovative imaging methods for tumor detection. She was an Associate Editor ofGastroenterology and has served on the editorial board of Endocrinology and numerous study sections. Dr. Lund is particularly active as a mentor to trainees and junior faculty and is an advocate for cross-discipline and translational research, education, and training.