Current Students and Laboratory Personnel:
- Sharon Matthews
Recent Publications:
UF Health Research Landscapes:
Hello, my name is Jill Verlander. My laboratory is interested in the kidney’s role in maintaining acid-base homeostasis, fluid and electrolyte balance, and blood pressure. These functions of the kidney are vitally important for overall health.
Our current studies of renal ammonium metabolism and excretion, which are critically important for maintaining acid-base homeostasis, are conducted in collaboration with Dr. David Weiner here at the University of Florida. Together, we have discovered important new information regarding the roles of Rh glycoproteins, the sodium bicarbonate co-transporter NBC e1, and glutamine synthetase in regulating renal ammonia.
Our studies of pendrin, a chloride-bicarbonate exchanger present in only a small population of kidney cells, are done in collaboration with Dr. Susan Wall of Emory University. These studies have yielded surprising new knowledge about the role of pendrin in regulating sodium-chloride balance and blood pressure.
My particular expertise is the ability to characterize the ultrastructural features of individual kidney cells and the protein expression in these cells, and to correlate these findings with physiologic function. We are one of only a handful of kidney research laboratories in the world with the ability to quantify changes in cell ultrastructure and subcellular protein expression.
We use immunogold electron microscopy and morphometric analyses to identify the specific cellular mechanisms that maintain acid-base and electrolyte balance after physiologic disturbances or genetic deletions.
In addition to my primary research, I also direct the College of Medicine Electron Microscopy Core Facility. Through our core, we make these specialized techniques available not only to other investigators at the University of Florida, but also to renal researchers throughout the country.
I’m Dr. Jill Verlander, and I’m part of the research landscape at the University of Florida.