Eric Delpire, PhD, director of Basic Science Research in the Department of Anesthesiology, has been appointed the B.H. Robbins Directorship in Anesthesiology Research, one of the newly formed endowed directorships at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. His endowment was celebrated on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018.
He explained the appointment means the Anesthesiology Department and the Medical Center acknowledge his success and want to give recognition. He described the endowment, in its own way, as a promotion.
“Endowed Directorship is basically the highest academic honor that VUMC has to bestow upon an accomplished member of the faculty,” said Warren Sandberg, M.D., Ph.D. chair of the Department of the Anesthesiology.
The endowment gives extra money for Delpire’s research which allows him flexibility to do different things that might not otherwise be done with grant money. This might include hiring a new person, creating novel models, or helping fill gaps between grants. “It is a relief to have additional money like the endowment,” he said.
He said he believes he got this endowment because he has been successful in the past 20 years at VUMC pursuing independent research and fulfilling his other academic duties.
Delpire has been studying the transport of inorganic ions across cell membranes for the past 30 years. He explained that ions need specialized proteins to move through cell membranes and he studies those transporter proteins.
One of his research projects involves the nervous system and inhibitory signals. Delpire explained that neurons communicate using electric signals which are generated from the movements of ions across neuronal membranes. In the nervous system, there is constant balance between excitation and inhibition. Excitatory signals lead the brain to do things while inhibitory signals tend to stop them. “I am interested in the inhibition part. When you increase too much the inhibitory part; you get sedation or even anesthesia,” he said.
His other research project relates to the kidney and the regulation of blood pressure. Delpire explained the kidney filters salt from the blood into the urine then reclaims it. When too much salt is reclaimed, the result is high blood pressure. There are specialized transporters that take the salt back into the blood. In particular, Delpire said he studies how these transporters are regulated and how too little function leads to salt wasting while too much of it leads to high blood pressure. “If transporters are not there or not functioning, people will pee their salt - but if they function too well, blood pressure suffers” he said.
Delpire explained these two research projects are related because the same family of transporters that filters salt in the kidneys also modulates inhibitory synaptic transmission in the nervous system.
“Delpire is one the most influential and dynamic scientists in his field,” Sandberg said, “He works at a foundational level that creates systems allowing other investigators to advance science using tools that Delpire developed, certainly for his own use, but also for others. The generosity of Delpire’s research is a big part of why we as a department thought it was really important to recognize him with this honor. He got he first endowed directorship this department has ever created and one of the first ever created by VUMC and I think he is highly deserving of that special recognition.”