My immediate and long-range goals are to pursue a full-time career in research and teaching. participate in the training of graduate students, and to contribute scientifically to my field of study. The RCDA will afford me the opportunity to keep my teaching and administrative duties to a minimum during the award period, and thus provide the freedom to primarily concentrate on developing an independent multidisciplinary research program by taking full advantage of the collaborations which I have recently established, and then to transfer this knowledge to my laboratory. I am currently an assistant professor of the Department of Dental Research in a tenure track position. The University of Rochester and the Department of Dental Research have supported my scientific development by providing adequate laboratory space and the necessary equipment to perform my studies, by encouraging collaborations with senior faculty, by assuring that my non-research activities will not exceed 6-10% during the award period, and by providing salary support from nonfederal funds. During the award period. I will focus on developing a multidisciplinary research program to elucidate the structure-function relationships of the C1 transporting pathways associated with fluid and electrolyte secretion. This knowledge is critical to understanding salivary gland dysfunction caused by a myriad of perturbations (e.g. postradiation- and drug-induced xerostomia. Sjogrens disease or chloride transporting defects such as cystic fibrosis). Two approaches will be used to examine questions concerning the structure-function relationships of anion transporters in salivary glands: 1) we will determine the inhibitor susceptibility, kinetic properties, and regulation of anion transport proteins in salivary glands: 2) we will characterize clones from rat salivary gland cDNA libraries encoding the salivary gland anion exchanger and anion channel to determine the degree of homology with other anion transport proteins and identify alternate transcription/translation possibilities as have been observed in the kidney and erythrocytes for the anion exchange protein. Insight gained from these studies may therefore aid in developing rationales for preventing and/or treating salivary gland dysfunctions.
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| He, X; Wu, X; Knauf, P A et al. (1993) Functional expression of the rat anion exchanger AE2 in insect cells by a recombinant baculovirus. Am J Physiol 264:C1075-9 |
| Bartold, P M; Page, R C (1986) Hyaluronic acid synthesized by fibroblasts cultured from normal and chronically inflamed human gingivae. Coll Relat Res 6:365-77 |
