Alicia McDonough, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, has been at the USC Keck School of Medicine since 1981. Prior to USC, she was trained at UC Berkeley, Univ. Hawaii, UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute and Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. The McDonough lab applies cellular and molecular approaches to dissect systems physiology questions in whole animal models of disease. A central focus is to understand the mechanisms and signals responsible for the changes in sodium transport during hypertension. They discovered that kidney sodium excretion is regulated by trafficking sodium transporters into and out of kidney cell membranes. A second line of investigation of the lab is to understand how plasma potassium is maintained by the concerted responses of kidney and muscle, and how regulatory responses are activated when plasma potassium is altered, for example by diuretics or during renal failure. Dr. McDonough was the recipient of an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association Award and is currently a Fellow of the American Heart Association. She has served on the editorial boards of Hypertension and the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and currently serves on the editorial boards of both the American Journal of Physiology: Renal and American Journal of Physiology: Cell. Dr. McDonough regularly reviews grants for the Veterans Administration Nephrology panel, the NIH and the AHA. In addition to teaching and mentoring medical and graduate student, Dr. McDonough currently chairs the Graduate Council at the Keck School of Medicine.