APS News

As originally published in The Physiologist
Volume 45, Number 3, June 2002, page 146-148

Introducing...Raouf A. Khalil
Introducing...Pat Preisig
Introducing...Curt D. Sigmund

 Introducing...Raouf A. Khalil
   Raouf A. Khalil became the Chair of the Membership Committee and assumed duties in January 2002, succeeding Martha O’Donnell. Khalil has previously served on the APS Membership Committee from 1999 to 2001. Khalil is presently on the Editorial Board of the AJP: Heart and Circulatory Physiology. Khalil is also serving on the Editorial Board of the AJP: Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology and has previously served on the Editorial Board of the Journal from 1998 through 2001. Khalil is an American Heart Association (AHA) Established Investigator and active member in the Council for Basic Cardiovascular Sciences and the Council for High Blood Pressure Research of AHA. Khalil is also an active member of the Biophysical Society.

    Khalil is presently a Research Health Scientist at the VA Boston Healthcare System and Assistant Professor of Physiology in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Previous to his appointment at Harvard Medical School, he was Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Department of physiology and Bio-physics at the University of Mississippi Medical School from 1998 through 2002, Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center from 1996 through 1998, and instructor at Harvard Medical School from 1992 through 1994. Khalil received his MD from Cairo University in 1976 and his PhD from the University of Miami School of Medicine in 1989, and did postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Hospital from 1989 through 1992.
   
    Khalil’s research focuses on the signal transduction mechanisms involved in vascular contraction and relaxation and the changes in these mechanisms with gender and in pathological conditions, such as hypertension and coronary artery disease. These important areas of research blend a variety of physiological approaches with biochemical and imaging techniques. The goal of these research efforts is to develop strategies for prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery disease, essential hypertension and hypertension of pregnancy.

    As the newly elected Chair of the Membership Committee, Khalil has several strategic goals for the next three years. The first goal is to increase the number of first time members by 5% over the previous year. This goal can be achieved by: 1) Vigorous membership campaigns to aggressively promote and expand the APS membership worldwide. 2) encouraging the Membership Committee to help recruit membership prospects and assist with the recruiting; 3) exploring incentive packages for membership recruitment; 4) networking with media to promote membership campaigns; 5) assembling and staffing a booth at major national and international scientific meetings to provide information and accept applications on site; 6) and developing plans to promote electronic and online membership applications.

    A second strategic goal of the chair is to maximize member retention and maintain a membership retention rate of at least 95%. Tactical goals will include: 1) hosting a New Member Annual Reception and Banquet during the Experimental Biology meeting to communicate benefit information and encourage active involvement; 2) maintaining contact with new members and encouraging attendance to at least one APS event by utilizing staff and member peers; 3) contacting all renewal accounts up to four times; 4) considering discounts for three-year dues payments; 5) and conducting membership and prospect surveys.

    Khalil believes it is important to increase the voice and the level of involvement of the members within APS. The third goal is to develop plans with other APS committees to increase the participation of the new members in the nomination and selection of APS sections officers and committees and also in the selection of APS meetings’ dates and sites. To achieve this goal, the chair suggests rapid methods to vote, for example, by using electronic vote.

    The fourth goal is to increase the involvement of young scientists in APS. This goal can be achieved by: 1) increasing the recruitment efforts among undergraduate and graduate students; 2) consulting with other members to help recruit young scientists and provide suggestions as to how to increase the membership of young scientists; 3) reevaluating the criteria of young members and develop plans for more flexible review of applications from young scientists; 4) proposing plans to include one graduate student or postdoctoral fellow in the Membership Committee. 

    Khalil and the Membership Committee are committed to these initiatives. The collective goal is to invigorate the membership recruitment and retention efforts, and establish a template for the active involvement of current members of APS to promote and enhance the membership in the society.

Introducing...Pat Preisig
    On January 1, 2002 Pat Preisig succeeded Tom Peterson as Chair of the APS Awards Committee. Preisig had served as a member of the Committee for three years before becoming Chair. As Chair, Preisig and the Committee will review applications and select recipients for the APS Young Investigator Awards (Arthur C. Guyton award, Shih-Chun Wang award, Lazaro J. Mandel award), Postdoctoral Fellowships in Physiological Genomics, and Research and Teaching Career Enhancements Awards. In addition, the committee is involved in an on-going process of reviewing and improving the APS awards program.

    Preisig is a Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX. She received her doctoral degree in Organ System Physiology from the University of San Francisco in 1983, where her focus was renal physiology. Her graduate work examined the pathways of water reabsorption in the proximal tubule of the nephron and was completed under the direction of Christine Berry and Floyd C. Rector, Jr.. After spending four years on the faculty, she moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in 1987. 

    Preisig’s research now focuses on 1) acid regulation of the proximal tubule Na/H antiporter isoform, NHE3, and the Na dicarboxcylic acid transporter, NaDC-1; and 2) the regulation of proximal tubule growth. The former work, which is the product of a long-standing collaboration with Bob Alpern, has elucidated a number of signaling intermediates that are necessary for decreases in cell pH to increased acid secretion by the proximal tubule. By using transgenic mice in which endothelin B receptor expression has been disrupted in the kidney, they have shown that endothelin 1 working through the endothelin B, but not endothelin A receptor mediates the upregulation of NHE3 activity in response to a decrease in cell pH. The initial increase in NHE3 activity is due to trafficking of NHE3 to the apical membrane of the proximal tubule cell, followed by a chronic regulation that includes increased expression of whole cell NHE3. They have identified a segment of the 2nd intracellular loop of the endothelin B receptor and the C-terminal tail as being necessary for endothelin 1 regulation of NHE3. They have also discovered that the tyrosine kinase Pyk2 appears to be the pH-sensor that initiates the signaling cascade leading to acid-induced NHE3 regulation.

    Preisig’s research on renal growth initially focused on identifying the mechanism by which proximal tubule epithelial cells hypertrophy. Proximal tubule hypertrophy is characteristic of conditions such as the loss of renal mass, diabetes mellitus, and electrolyte disorders, such as chronic metabolic acidosis and potassium deficiency. She was the first to determine that there are two mechanisms by which proximal tubule cells can be induced to hypertrophy. One is cell cycle-dependent in that it involves regulation of the cell cycle kinases and cyclin kinase inhibitors that mediate progression through the G1 phase of the cell cycle. This mechanism is mitogen dependent, requiring that hypertrophied cells enter G1 and then experience cell cycle arrest in the late G1 phase of the cell cycle. The second mechanism is cell cycle-independent. This mechanism involves alkalinization of acidic intravesicular compartments in the cell, which disrupts the balance between rates of protein synthesis and protein degradation.

    Her current work in this area is to identify which hypertrophy mechanism is involved in in vivo conditions. She has shown that the proximal tubule hypertrophy associated with loss of renal mass (uninephrectomy) and diabetes mellitus is due to the cell cycle-dependent mechanism. In uninephrectomy-induced, but not diabetes-induced proximal tubule hypertrophy, endothelin 1 working through the endothelin B receptor provides the mitogen signal necessary to activate the hypertrophic growth process.

    In addition to her research, Preisig is involved in a number of other professional activities. She currently is the Chair of the Basic Science Research Committee of the American Society of Nephrology, a member of the Executive Committee of the Kidney in Cardiovascular Disease Council of the American Heart Association, Editor of the Women in Nephrology newsletter, a member of the Executive Committee of Women in Nephrology, co-editor of the "Renal Pathophysiology" section of “Current Opinions” in Nephrology and Hypertension, and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. She has served as the secretary of the Renal Section of the APS, been a member of the Programming Committee for the American Society of Nephrology, and organized a Forefronts in Nephrology conference for the International Society of Nephrology.

    Preisig has set several goals for the Committee. Some of these will be done within the Committee and some in conjunction with other APS working groups. The APS Strategic Plan has identified several goals for the APS awards programs. Preisig and the Committee will address those that pertain to their function. 
This year the Committee is focusing on establishing written criteria for evaluating the applications for each award. This document will be used by each reviewer and will serve to introduce new Committee members to the review process. Their goal is to consistently identify the top application(s) for funding. This year the review process has been changed to be more like an NIH study section, except that they have not triaged applications.
With financial support from the APS, the Postdoctoral Fellowship stipend has been increased to stay in line with the new NIH stipends. APS’s goal is to make their Postdoctoral Fellowship the premiere fellowship, and thus, will increase the stipends over the next few years so that they are consistently a little above those offered by the NIH.

    A number of new awards, particularly for junior investigators, are being discussed. These will be presented to the APS Council at their summer meeting. In addition, there are discussions to expand the breath of the Postdoctoral Fellowships. Currently the three fellowships awarded are in Physiological Genomics. A task force established last year to review the whole APS awards program will present a recommendation to Council to increase the number of fellowships and include other focus topics. Hopefully, these changes in the awards program can be put in place next year. 

Introducing...Curt D. Sigmund
    On January 1, 2002, Curt D. Sigmund succeeded Judith Neubauer as Chair of the APS Joint Program Committee (JPC). As Chair, Sigmund will also serve ex officio on the APS Council. Sigmund previously served on the JPC as an at large member appointed by then President Allen Cowley and then served as the representative to the newly formed Physiological Genomics Interest group. In 1997 Sigmund served on a Blue Ribbon Panel to develop and implement a strategic plan for APS programming, and is a member of the Physiological Genomics Task Force.

    Sigmund is Professor of Medicine and Physiology and Biophysics in the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA. He received his undergraduate education at the State University of New York in Buffalo, NY, and his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the same institution in 1987. He completed postdoctoral training at Roswell Park Cancer Institute under the mentorship of Kenneth W. Gross. In 1991 he joined the Departments of Medicine and Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Iowa.

    Sigmund’s research focuses on the molecular biology and genetics of the renin-angiotensin system with a particular emphasis on the development of transgenic mouse models to study the role of tissue renin-angiotensin in hypertension. His research awards include the Henry Christian Award for Excellence in Clinical Research from the American Federation for Clinical Research, American Society of Hypertension/Hoechst Marion Roussel 1997 Young Scholars Award, and in 2000 received the Henry Pickering Bowditch Award Lecture of the American Physiological Society at Experimental Biology 2000. His over 100 publications include the first paper accepted for publication in the APS Journal—Physiological Genomics, which provided the first genetic evidence that abnormalities in renal angiotensin-II levels can cause hypertension even when circulating levels of angiotensin-II are normal. Sigmund was recently appointed Director of the Carver Research Program of Excellence in the Functional Genomics of Hypertension and Cardiovascular Diseases at the University of Iowa.

    In addition to his service on the JPC, Sigmund was previously an Associate Editor of AJP: Endocrinology and Metabolism, and is currently an Editor of Physiological Genomics. He is also an Associate Editor of the American Heart Association journal, Hypertension, and is a regular member of the Cardiovascular and Renal Study section at the NIH.

    The Joint Program Committee is charged with developing the scientific programs for the Society, including the APS program at Experimental Biology, APS Conferences, and Inter-Society Conferences. The committee also assists the APS Council in shaping policy for scientific programs.

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