Peter K. Lauf

Biography

Dr. Peter K. Lauf received his M.D. degree in 1960 at the University of Freiburg, Germany, after his thesis work under neurophysiologist Paul Hoffmann and his successor Albrecht Fleckenstein. From 1960-1962, he was Fellow at the Institute of Pathology at the University of Freiburg. From 1962-1964, he was Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Immunochemistry (Otto Westphal) in Freiburg/Germany. From 1964-1967, he was Research Associate at the Child Research Center of Michigan in Detroit; 1966-67, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Wayne State University. In 1968, he joined Dan Tosteson's Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Duke as Assistant Professor, where he became Associate Professor in 1971 and Professor in 1978. In 1985, he was appointed Chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Wright State University, a position he held until June 30, 2003. On July 1, 2003, he assumed his new position as University Professor within the School of Medicine at Wright State University. Dr. Lauf has over 300 publications, book chapters and abstracts. His NIH-funded research was on erythrocyte cation transport system, especially the Na/K pumps and the electroneutral K-Cl cotransporter. During his career, he has trained numerous Ph.D.'s and postdoctoral fellows. He has held visiting professorships in Germany, Japan, Sweden and Australia, and joint appointments in the Department of Immunology at Duke and in Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Dr. Lauf has received several awards such as an NIH career award in 1971, the Golding Research Professorship at Wright State in 1988, the 1998 Research Award from the Affiliate Society Council of Engineering in Dayton, and the University Professor title at Wright State University in 2003.

Research Interest

Control of Erythrocyte Volume Through Membrane Transport Processes Erythrocytes of all species maintain their cellular volume by active transport of sodium (Na) and potassium (K) through specifically designed pumps counteracting the constant dissipation of inward Na and outward K gradients across their plasma membranes. Using various cellular models, this laboratory has been studying for many years the properties of Na/K pump fluxes, as well as the mechanisms by which K together with chloride (Cl) leaves the cell through a cation-anion coupled transport mechanism, the K-Cl cotransporter. More recently this laboratory's research is attempting to shed further light on the kinetic and thermodynamic properties of K-Cl cotransport because they reveal how the transporter works, how ions bind and are translocated, and which is the nature of the driving forces. It has been discovered that crucial thiol groups, intracellular magnesium, as well as anions and protons are crucial for the regulation of the K-Cl cotransporter's activity through regulatory mechanisms such as enzymes and cofactors still to be revealed. Studies are now in progress on the molecular identity of the K-Cl cotransporter and its regulatory machinery through the use of pharmacological probes such as inhibitors like loop diuretics, disulfonic stilbenes and quinolines, and by molecular-biological techniques aimed at cloning and reconstituting the protein macromolecules. Knowledge gained in these studies will benefit the understanding of disorders of cell volume regulation in general, and of processes leading to cellular dehydration through K-Cl and water loss as it occurs in erythrocytes with genetically abnormal hemoglobins such as hemoglobin S and C.