Dr. Susanne Angelow was a joint recipient of the John McKay Fellowship, along with Dr. Jeanie Park. Dr. Angelow’s fellowship project focused on renal salt and water reabsorption, which is important in the control of circulating volume and blood pressure. She was particularly interested in claudins, a family of integral tight junction proteins, some of which form ion-selective channels in the junctions that connect the cells lining the renal tubules; little is known about the structure of these so-called paracellular pores. Dr. Angelow combined molecular biology techniques and electrophysiological measurements to determine the position of selected amino acid residues within the claudin pore, a method that ultimately allows the systematic mapping of the entire structure of a claudin channel.
