Fundamental Processes in Renal Function Discovered at the Mt. Desert Island Biological Laboratory

Some 25 years after its founding as a marine laboratory in 1898 by Tufts University, The Mt. Desert Island Biological Laboratory (MDIBL) became a center for advances in renal physiology for the next 90 years. Populated by summer investigators from major US and international universities, who used marine species as model systems, the MDIBL has been the site for foundational discoveries ranging from whole-animal urinary excretion protocols that delineated proximal tubule secretion and glomerular filtration to the use of isolated kidney tubules to dissect solute transport steps. By the end of the 20th Century, MDIBL investigators had adopted modern molecular techniques to isolate and purify, then visualize, renal proteins, and clone their relevant genes. More recently, they have used a transgenic fish model to study the molecular control of glomerular filtration. Thus, much of what is presently accepted as models for the function of the vertebrate/mammalian kidney is due to the unique, collaborative research, by basic scientists and clinicians, at a cold-water marine laboratory in Maine.