Of Diuretics, Transporters, and Mechanisms of Hypertension

As Director of the Renal Division at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dr Barry Brenner established a molecular physiology laboratory during the 1980s by recruiting the appropriate researchers, with the vision that cloning the complementary DNA of membrane proteins would be a critical step in advancing the field. In the early 1990s, this laboratory identified and cloned several key complementary DNAs, including those for the renal sodium-chloride and sodium-potassium-chloride cotransporter, the inwardly rectifying renal outer medullary potassium channel, and the calcium-sensing receptor. In the present work, we discuss some of the many advances regarding the physiology and pathophysiology of salt transport in the kidney that have emerged over the last 30 years, advances made possible by the cloning of these genes and, ultimately, by the vision of Barry Brenner.