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The Renal Section of the American Physiological Society is pleased to announce the 1998 recipient of the Neurex Young Investigator Award for Excellence in Renal Physiology: Dr. Arlyn Garcia-Perez, Chief of the Osmotic Regulation Section, Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Metabolism, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institutes of Health (NIH). The purpose of this award is to recognize an outstanding young investigator working in any area of renal physiology or hypertension. Dr. Garcia-Perez presented her keynote lecture, entitled "Regulation of Gene Expression by Hyperosmotic Stress: Renal Medullary Cells as a Eukaryotic Model," during a mini-symposium on Renal Sodium and Water Transport Mechanisms at the Experimental Biology '98 meeting in San Francisco, April 18-22, 1998. Dr. Garcia-Perez received her Neurex Young Investigator Award during the Renal Dinner on April 21. This award will be presented annually at the Experimental Biology meeting and is made possible by the generous support of the Neurex Corporation, Menlo Park, CA. The Renal Section wishes to express its sincere appreciation to the Neurex Corporation for generous support of biomedical education.
Dr. Garcia-Perez received her B.S. degree in biology in 1979 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. degree in biochemistry in 1984 from Michigan State University. She has been at the NHLBI since 1984, rising progressively from fellow to senior investigator to chief of the Osmotic Regulation Section. Dr. Garcia-Perez is a member of the NIH General Medicine B study section, serves on the editorial board of the American Journal of Physiology: Renal Physiology, and has published 45 articles.
Dr. Garcia-Perez has been conducting state-of-the-art research focused on understanding the mechanisms that regulate the accumulation of organic osmolytes in the renal medulla. Her findings on the mammalian renal medulla have proven fundamental to the understanding of osmotic regulation of gene expression in higher eukaryotes in general. Dr. Garcia-Perez's work reporting the osmotic induction of aldose reductase mRNA abundance and transcription was the first demonstration of osmotic regulation of any gene in higher eukaryotes, and this set the stage for what has become an entire field of study now pursued by many laboratories around the world. Her identification and characterization of the minimal essential osmotic response element has continued to open new frontiers in the field. Dr. Garcia-Perez is also well recognized for two principal technological contributions to renal physiology. In 1983, as a graduate student, she developed "immunodissection," a technique for isolating specific types of renal cells using monoclonal antibodies directed toward cell surface antigens unique to each type of cell. In 1990, Dr. Garcia-Perez also developed the use of RT-PCR directly on single microdissected nephron segments that are permeabilized by mild detergent for detection of gene expression along the nephron. Both techniques have withstood the test of time, as these continue to be used by renal laboratories worldwide.
The APS Renal Section's Neurex Young Investigator Award Committee, a subcommittee of the Renal Section Steering Committee, included Douglas Eaton (Renal Section Sage), Roger O'Neil (Renal Section past Chair), Jeff Sands (Renal Section Treasurer), and Jurgen Schnermann (Renal Section Program Committee Chair).