Walter Boron
Walter F. Boron is an American scientist and the 72nd president of the American Physiological Society. He was Secretary-General of the . Additionally, Boron is co-editor, along with Emile L. Boulpaep, of the textbook Medical Physiology and Concise Medical Physiology. He is a former editor-in-chief of two leading physiology journals, Physiological Reviews and Physiology.
Education
Boron obtained his AB degree in chemistry, summa cum laude from Saint Louis University in 1971. He then joined the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University School of Medicine, where he received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in 1977 under the mentorship of Albert Roos. During this time, Boron also collaborated with Paul De Weer and . Boron joined Yale University as a postdoctoral fellow with Emile L. Boulpaep in the Department of Physiology, from 1978 to 1980.Career
Boron is the David N. and Inez Myers/Antonio Scarpa Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Case Western Reserve University. He is also Professor of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry. Since 2016, he has been Executive Director of PhD programs at the School of Medicine. He briefly served as Interim Chair of the Department of Biochemistry. Previously, he was a member of the faculty of Yale University, serving three 3-year terms as Chair of the Department of Cellular and Moleculary Physiology from 1989 through 1998.Boron's lifelong research interest has been pH homeostasis. With his colleagues, he was the first to demonstrate cell-pH regulation, developed the first mathematical model of cell-pH regulation, discovered several sodium-coupled/bicarbonate cotransporters, was the first to clone the DNA encoding an NBC, discovered the sensing of molecular carbon dioxide and bicarbonate, and introduced several paradigms for studying cellular acid-base physiology. His laboratory has elucidated the mechanisms and control of acid-base transport in kidney tubules, and pH regulation in neurons and glial cells from the central nervous system. discovered and cloned several bicarbonate transporters, elucidated the sensing of molecular carbon dioxide and bicarbonate, and introduced several experimental paradigms for studying cellular acid-base physiology.
While studying pH regulation in cells from the stomach, Boron and his colleagues became the first to describe a membrane that does not permit the penetration of carbon dioxide. This result led to the discovery of the first gas channel, namely aquaporin-1. Boron's group has extended its interest to understanding mechanisms of gas movement through aquaporins, Rh proteins, and other membrane proteins, and the physiological significance of these movements.