Cell Volume Regulation

Irena Levitan, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine and Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She received her PhD in Biophysics and Neurobiology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1994 and completed postdoctoral training at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and Institute for Medicine and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the biophysical properties of endothelial membranes and sub-membrane cytoskeleton. Specifically, the studies of her group, which combine computational and experimental biophysical approaches, provided the first comprehensive structural insights into cholesterol regulation of K+ channels. In 2012, she was named a Guyton Distinguished Lecturer "for her quantitative and biophysical work on cholesterol modulation of ion channels and how this can affect integrated organ function?. She and her group also discovered a paradoxical relationship between fluidity/deformability of the membrane and cell stiffness. In2018, she was elected a Fellow of AIMBE for "outstanding contributions to our understanding of lipid-ion channel interactions, cellular biomechanics and vascular dysfunction under dyslipidemia?.

Section 1. General Principles of Cell Volume Regulation 1. Water Homeostasis and Cell Volume Maintenance and Regulation Eric Delpire and Kenneth B. Gagnon 2. Search for Upstream Cell Volume Sensors: The Role of Plasma Membrane and Cytoplasmic Hydrogel Sergei N. Orlov, Aleksandra Shiyan, Francis Boudreault, Olga Ponomarchuk, and Ryszard Grygorczyk 3. Cytoskeletal Contribution to Cell Stiffness Due to Osmotic Swelling; Extending the Donnan Equilibrium Pei-Chuan Chao, Mettupalayam Sivaselvan, and Frederick Sachs 4. Membrane Stiffening in Osmotic Swelling: Analysis of Membrane Tension and Elastic Modulus Manuela A.A. Ayee and Irena Levitan 5. Molecular Identities and ATP Release Activities of Two Types of Volume-Regulatory Anion Channels, VSOR and Maxi-Cl Yasunobu Okada, Toshiaki Okada, Md. Rafiqul Islam, and Ravshan Z. Sabirov 6. Molecular Biology and Physiology of LRRC8 Volume-Regulated Anion Channel (VRAC) James Osei-Owusu, Junhua Yang, Maria del Carmen Vitery, and Zhaozhu QiuSection 2. Regulation of Intracellular Chloride and Water Homeostasis 7. Role of WNK Kinases in the Modulation of Cell Volume Paola de los Heros, Diana Pacheco-Alvarez, and Gerardo Gamba 8. Intracellular Macromolecules in Cell Volume Control and Methods of Their Quantification Michael A. Model M.A. and Jonathan C. PetruccelliSection 3. Cell Volume Regulation in the Airways 9. Slippery When Wet: Airway Surface Liquid Homeostasis and Mucus Hydration Megan J. Webster and Robert Tarran 10. Physiology of the Gut: Experimental Models for Investigating Intestinal Fluid and Electrolyte Transport Isha Dey and Neil A. BradburySection 4. Cell Volume Regulation in the Brain 11. Cell Volume Control in Healthy Brain and Neuropathologies Corinne S. Wilson and Alexander A. Mongin 12. Cytotoxic Swelling of Sick Excitable Cells - Impaired Ion Omeostasis and Membrane Tension Homeostasis in Muscle and Neuron Catherine E. Morris