Vasopressin

Dr. Gerald Litwack obtained M.S. and PhD degrees from the University of Wisconsin Department of Biochemistry and remained there for a brief time as a Lecturer on Enzymes. Then he entered the Biochemical Institute of the Sorbonne as a Fellow of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. He next moved to Rutgers University as an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and later as Associate Professor of biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Medicine. After four years he moved to the Temple University School of Medicine as Professor of Biochemistry and Deputy Director of the Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology, soon after, becoming the Laura H. Carnell Professor. Subsequently he was appointed chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at the Jefferson Medical College as well as Vice Dean for Research and Deputy Director of the Jefferson Cancer Institute and Director of the Institute for Apoptosis. Following the move of his family, he became a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Biological Chemistry of the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and then became the Founding Chair of the Department of Basic Sciences at the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, becoming Professor of Molecular and Cellular Medicine and Associate Director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the Texas A&M Health Science Center as his final position. During his career he was a visiting scientist at the University of California, San Francisco and Berkeley, Courtauld Institute of Biochemistry, London and the Wistar Institute. He was appointed Emeritus Professor and/or Chair at Rutgers University, Thomas Jefferson University and the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. He has published more than 300 scientific papers, authored three textbooks and edited more than sixty-five books. Currently he lives with his family and continues his authorship and editorial work in Los Angeles.

1. Vasotocin and the origins of the vasopressin/oxytocin receptor gene family Sally A. Mayasich and Benjamin L. Clarke 2. Oxytocin/vasopressin-like neuropeptide signaling in insects Edin Muratspahic, Emilie Monjon, Leopold Dürrauer, Stephen M. Rogers, Darron A. Cullen, Jozef Vanden Broeck and Christian W. Gruber 3. Amyloid-like aggregation of provasopressin Martin Spiess, Nicole Beuret, Cristina Prescianotto Baschong and Jonas Rutishauser 4. V2 vasopressin receptor mutations Noriko Makita, Katsunori Manaka and Taroh Iiri 5. Vasopressin inactivation: Role of insulin-regulated aminopeptidase Don T. Li, Estifanos N. Habtemichael and Jonathan S. Bogan 6. Molecular aspects of aquaporins Suchun Li, Chunling Li and Weidong Wang 7. The vasotocinergic system and its role in the regulation of stress in birds Wayne J. Kuenzel, Seong W. Kang and Alexander Jurkevich 8. Vasopressin actions in the kidney renin angiotensin system and its role in hypertension and renal disease Alexis A. Gonzalez, Nicolas Salinas-Parra, Flavia Cifuentes-Araneda and Cristian Reyes-Martinez 9. Vasopressin receptor subtypes and renal sodium transport Yu. V. Natochin and D. V. Golosova 10. Development and therapeutic potential of vasopressin synthetic analog [V4Q5]dDAVP as a novel anticancer agent Garona Juan, Pifano Marina, Ripoll Giselle and Alonso Daniel F.11. Vasopressin and vasopressin receptors in brain edema Emil Zeynalov, Susan M. Jones and J. Paul Elliott