Bertil Hille

Last updated
Bertil Hille
Born(1940-10-10)October 10, 1940
New Haven, Connecticut.
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Yale University, The Rockefeller University
SpouseMerrill Burr Hille
Awards Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, Albert Lasker Award, Gairdner Foundation International Award
Scientific career
Fields Ion channels
Institutions University of Washington

Bertil Hille (born October 10, 1940) is an Emeritus Professor, and the Wayne E. Crill Endowed Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington. [1] He is particularly well known for his pioneering research on cell signalling by ion channels. His book Ion Channels of Excitable Membranes has been the standard work on the subject, appearing in multiple editions since its first publication in 1984. [2]

Contents

Biography

Early life and education

Hille was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His father is Carl Einar Hille, a Yale math professor and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He attended the Foote School and Westminster School (Connecticut). [3]

Hille received his B.S. summa cum laude in Zoology from Yale University (1962) and his Ph.D. in Life Sciences from The Rockefeller University (1967). During his PhD, Hille started his long-term collaboration with Clay Armstrong, who he shared many awards with several decades later. After completing his Ph.D, Hille did postdoc research with Sir Alan L. Hodgkin (1963 Nobel laureate for the basis of nerve action potentials) and Richard Keynes at the University of Cambridge, England. [4]

Career

In 1968 Hille joined the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington's School of Medicine. In 2005, he was named the Wayne E. Crill Endowed Professor. On July 1, 2021, he became a professor emeritus. [5]

Personal life

Bertil Hille is married to Merrill Burr Hille, Professor Emerita of Biology at the University of Washington, and has two sons, Erik Darwin Hille and Jon Trygve Hille Grey. [3]

Scientific contributions

Bertil Hille pioneered the concept of ion channels as membrane proteins forming gated aqueous pores (with Clay Armstrong). [6] [7] He showed that Na+ and K+ channels of axons could be distinguished by drugs such as tetrodotoxin and tetraethylammonium ion, and that their ionic selectivity can be understood by limiting pore size, the selectivity filter, and by movements of ions through a series of saturable sites. He showed that local anesthetics enter Na+ channels in a state-dependent manner. [3] [8] [9]

In 1984, Hille started a new direction of studying the modulation of ion channels by G protein–coupled receptors. He distinguished two new signaling pathways for excitable cells. A fast, pertussis toxin-sensitive pathway turned on inward rectifier K+ channels and turned off Ca2+ channels by G protein Gβγ subunits. A slow, pertussis toxin-insensitive pathway turned off some K+ and Ca2+ channels by depleting the plasma membrane phosphoinositides, phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2). New tools and findings from the Hille lab, together with the initial finding (1996) from Donald W. Hilgemann's lab at UT southwestern, demonstrated that PIP2 is an essential cofactor for many ion channels and transporters. The low-abundance signaling lipid PIP2 indeed plays a significant role in regulating neuronal and cardiac excitability. Hille has developed a detailed model of the PIP2 loss mechanism and its effects on the muscarinic inhibition of M-channels. [10] [9]

Hille has published more than 200 papers and book chapters. [5] He is the author of multiple editions of Ion Channels of Excitable Membranes, described as an essential introduction not just for beginners but for readers throughout the areas of biochemistry and biophysics. Hille's book is considered to mark a turning point in the field, [2] [11] defining the modern era of ion channel studies. [12] The book is known for its clarity of language, [13] its ability to communicate to both the beginner and the specialist, [14] its attention to research history, and the breadth and depth of its scientific coverage. [12]

Awards and distinctions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ion channel</span> Pore-forming membrane protein

Ion channels are pore-forming membrane proteins that allow ions to pass through the channel pore. Their functions include establishing a resting membrane potential, shaping action potentials and other electrical signals by gating the flow of ions across the cell membrane, controlling the flow of ions across secretory and epithelial cells, and regulating cell volume. Ion channels are present in the membranes of all cells. Ion channels are one of the two classes of ionophoric proteins, the other being ion transporters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Action potential</span> Neuron communication by electric impulses

An action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific cell rapidly rises and falls. This depolarization then causes adjacent locations to similarly depolarize. Action potentials occur in several types of animal cells, called excitable cells, which include neurons, muscle cells, and in some plant cells. Certain endocrine cells such as pancreatic beta cells, and certain cells of the anterior pituitary gland are also excitable cells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockefeller University</span> Biomedical research university in New York City, US

The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity." Rockefeller is the oldest biomedical research institute in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bert Sakmann</span> German Nobel laureate

Bert Sakmann is a German cell physiologist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Erwin Neher in 1991 for their work on "the function of single ion channels in cells," and the invention of the patch clamp. Bert Sakmann was Professor at Heidelberg University and is an Emeritus Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany. Since 2008 he leads an emeritus research group at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erwin Neher</span> German biophysicist and Nobel laureate

Erwin Neher is a German biophysicist, specializing in the field of cell physiology. For significant contribution in the field, in 1991 he was awarded, along with Bert Sakmann, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "their discoveries concerning the function of single ion channels in cells".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roderick MacKinnon</span> American biophysicist, neuroscientist, and businessman

Roderick MacKinnon is an American biophysicist, neuroscientist, and businessman. He is a professor of molecular neurobiology and biophysics at Rockefeller University who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Peter Agre in 2003 for his work on the structure and operation of ion channels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potassium channel</span> Ion channel that selectively passes K+

Potassium channels are the most widely distributed type of ion channel found in virtually all organisms. They form potassium-selective pores that span cell membranes. Potassium channels are found in most cell types and control a wide variety of cell functions.

Phosphatidic acids are anionic phospholipids important to cell signaling and direct activation of lipid-gated ion channels. Hydrolysis of phosphatidic acid gives rise to one molecule each of glycerol and phosphoric acid and two molecules of fatty acids. They constitute about 0.25% of phospholipids in the bilayer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Rothman</span> American biologist and Nobel laureate

James Edward Rothman is an American biochemist. He is the Fergus F. Wallace Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Yale University, the Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at Yale School of Medicine, and the Director of the Nanobiology Institute at the Yale West Campus. Rothman also concurrently serves as adjunct professor of physiology and cellular biophysics at Columbia University and a research professor at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randy Schekman</span> American cell biologist

Randy Wayne Schekman is an American cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, former editor-in-chief of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and former editor of Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology. In 2011, he was announced as the editor of eLife, a new high-profile open-access journal published by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society and the Wellcome Trust launching in 2012. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992. Schekman shared the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with James Rothman and Thomas C. Südhof for their ground-breaking work on cell membrane vesicle trafficking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inward-rectifier potassium channel</span> Group of transmembrane proteins that passively transport potassium ions

Inward-rectifier potassium channels (Kir, IRK) are a specific lipid-gated subset of potassium channels. To date, seven subfamilies have been identified in various mammalian cell types, plants, and bacteria. They are activated by phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2). The malfunction of the channels has been implicated in several diseases. IRK channels possess a pore domain, homologous to that of voltage-gated ion channels, and flanking transmembrane segments (TMSs). They may exist in the membrane as homo- or heterooligomers and each monomer possesses between 2 and 4 TMSs. In terms of function, these proteins transport potassium (K+), with a greater tendency for K+ uptake than K+ export. The process of inward-rectification was discovered by Denis Noble in cardiac muscle cells in 1960s and by Richard Adrian and Alan Hodgkin in 1970 in skeletal muscle cells.

Sodium channels are integral membrane proteins that form ion channels, conducting sodium ions (Na+) through a cell's membrane. They belong to the superfamily of cation channels.

Clay Margrave Armstrong is an American physiologist and a former student of Andrew Fielding Huxley. Armstrong received his MD from Washington University School of Medicine in 1960. He is currently emeritus professor of physiology at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also held professorial appointments at Duke University and the University of Rochester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julius Bernstein</span> German physiologist

Julius Bernstein was a German physiologist born in Berlin. His father was Aron Bernstein (1812–1884), a founder of the Reform Judaism Congregation in Berlin 1845; his son was the mathematician Felix Bernstein (1878–1956).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gating (electrophysiology)</span>

In electrophysiology, the term gating refers to the opening (activation) or closing of ion channels. This change in conformation is a response to changes in transmembrane voltage.

Boris Khodorov was a Soviet and Russian physiologist, M.D., D.Sc., professor of physiology, and head of the Cell Physiology section of Moscow Physiological Society.

Clara Franzini-Armstrong is an Italian-born American electron microscopist, and Professor Emeritus of Cell and Developmental Biology at University of Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Hegemann</span> German biophysicist

Peter Hegemann is a Hertie Senior Research Chair for Neurosciences and a Professor of Experimental Biophysics at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. He is known for his discovery of channelrhodopsin, a type of ion channels regulated by light, thereby serving as a light sensor. This created the field of optogenetics, a technique that controls the activities of specific neurons by applying light. He has received numerous accolades, including the Rumford Prize, the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine, and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research.

John Walter Woodbury (1923–2017) was an American electrophysiologist and author of the first textbook explanation of the Hodgkin-Huxley_model studies of the action potential. He applied physical and mathematical techniques to experimentally elucidate the nature of electrical excitability in cells. He was also involved in the experimental and theoretical investigations of the mechanisms of ion penetration through the ion channels in muscle membranes, the regulation of cellular acid-base balance and the control of epileptic seizures by repetitive Vagus nerve stimulation.

Sarah K. England is a physiologist and biophysicist and the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Washington University School of Medicine. England conducts research on cation channels in uterine smooth muscle to understand the biological correlates of preterm birth and is the Associate Program Director of the Prematurity Research Center at Washington University as well as the Vice Chair of Research for the Center for Reproductive Health Sciences. In 2005, England was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow in the Office of Senator Hillary Clinton where she used her scientific expertise in obstetrics and gynaecology to guide policy changes.

References

  1. ↑ "Bertil Hille". University of Washington. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  2. 1 2 Aldrich, Richard W. (1 August 2015). "A new standard: A review of Handbook of Ion Channels". Journal of General Physiology. 146 (2): 119–121. doi:10.1085/jgp.201511461. PMC   4516783 . PMID   26216856.
  3. 1 2 3 Hille, Bertil (9 September 2011). "Bertil Hille". In Squire, Larry R. (ed.). The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography: Volume 7. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-990976-6 . Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  4. ↑ Hille, Bertil (9 May 2022). "A Life of Biophysics". Annual Review of Biophysics. 51 (1): 1–17. doi: 10.1146/annurev-biophys-120121-074034 . ISSN   1936-122X. PMID   34932910. S2CID   245397023 . Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  5. 1 2 Butler, Steve (28 June 2021). "Bertil Hille Continues as Professor Emeritus". The Huddle. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  6. ↑ Kruger, Larisa C.; Isom, Lori L. (June 2016). "Voltage-Gated Na + Channels: Not Just for Conduction". Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology. 8 (6): a029264. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a029264. PMC   4888818 . PMID   27252364.
  7. ↑ Hille, Bertil; Armstrong, Clay M.; MacKinnon, Roderick (October 1999). "Ion channels: From idea to reality" (PDF). Nature Medicine. 5 (10): 1105–1109. doi:10.1038/13415. PMID   10502800. S2CID   5216271 . Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  8. ↑ Brown, Angus M. (December 2019). "Ion channels: the concept emerges". The Journal of Physiology. 597 (24): 5725–5729. doi: 10.1113/JP279059 . ISSN   0022-3751. PMID   31617592. S2CID   204739080 . Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  9. 1 2 3 "Bertil Hille". Gairdner Foundation. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  10. ↑ Brown, David A. (6 January 2020). "Neurons, Receptors, and Channels". Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology. 60 (1): 9–30. doi: 10.1146/annurev-pharmtox-010919-023755 . ISSN   0362-1642. PMID   31914894. S2CID   210120471.
  11. ↑ Hille, Bertil (2001). Ion channels of excitable membranes (3rd ed.). Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer. ISBN   9780878933211.
  12. 1 2 Stevens, Charles F. (February 2002). "Defining the field of ion channels". Nature Neuroscience. 5 (2): 93. doi: 10.1038/nn0202-93 . ISSN   1546-1726. S2CID   2469334.
  13. ↑ Goldstein, Steve A. N. (2 November 2001). "All Grown up and Ready to Rumble" (PDF). Cell. 107 (3): 274–276. doi:10.1016/S0092-8674(01)00555-4. ISSN   0092-8674. S2CID   18149385 . Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  14. ↑ Buehler, Lukas K. (May 5, 2003). "Reviews: Ionic Channels of Excitable Membranes". What is Life. Retrieved 26 February 2010.
  15. ↑ "Bertil Hille". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  16. ↑ Dietz, Claire (May 15, 2003). "Catterall selected for Bristol-Myers Squibb Award in neuroscience research". UW News. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  17. ↑ "The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology Or Biochemistry" . Retrieved 26 February 2010.
  18. ↑ Renzulli, Virgil (October 11, 1996). "Two Biophysicists Win Columbia's Horwitz Prize". Columbia University Record. Retrieved 26 February 2010.
  19. ↑ "Bertil Hille". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  20. ↑ "Function and structure of ion channel 1999 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award". LASKER FOUNDATION. 2009. Retrieved 26 February 2010.
  21. ↑ "6 Scientists Named as Winners of Lasker Awards". The New York Times. 28 September 1999. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  22. ↑ "UW professor Dr. Bertil Hille named to Institute of Medicine". UW News. October 15, 2002. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  23. ↑ "Rockefeller University to hold 50th commencement June 12". News. June 9, 2008. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  24. ↑ "The Bard Lectureship – Department of Physiology". Department of Physiology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
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