Wallace Fenn was instrumental in the founding of the IUPS in 1953. He served as Secretary General from 1959 to 1965, and President from 1968 to 1971. His work on muscle physiology is recognized in the “Fenn Effect”, which is the relation between the energy liberated and the work done during contraction.

The programme of our virtual congress 2022 (organized together with the Chinese Association of Physiological Sciences) has many highlights. Among them are the seven named IUPS lectures. The Wallace Fenn lecture is awarded to an outstanding physiologist for his / her research. This year, the Wallace Fenn lecture will be given by Prof Walter Boron (Department of Physiology and Biophysics , Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA) ). He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude in chemistry at Saint Louis University in 1971, and his MD and PhD (Physiology & Biophysics) at Washington University in St. Louis in 1977. Boron joined Yale University as a postdoctoral fellow with Emile Boulpaep in 1978, and remained there for the next 29 years, serving three terms as Chairman of the Department of Cellular & Molecular Physiology. In 2007, he returned to his hometown of Cleveland to assume his present position.

Walter Boron developed his life-long interest in acid-base transport and intracellular-pH (pH_i) regulation during his PhD studies with Albert Roos (his official mentor), Paul De Weer, and John Russell; and his interest in renal HCO₃⁻ transport with postdoctoral mentor Boulpaep. Boron and collaborators described the first example of dynamic pH_i regulation, co-discovered the Na⁺-driven Cl-HCO₃ exchanger, discovered the electrogenic Na/HCO₃ cotransporter (NBCe1), and introduced many of the paradigms and definitions used in the pH_i-regulation field. Their cloning of the cDNA encoding NBCe1 led to the identification of numerous, related HCO₃⁻ transporters. An unexpected encounter with the first CO₂-impermeable biological membrane led Boron and collaborators to search for the first example of a membrane protein with permeability to a dissolved gas. This work lead to the discovery that aquaporin 1 (AQP1) is not only a H₂O, but also a CO₂ channel.

Accordingly, his lecture is entitled Gas diffusion through membrane proteins

We are looking forward to this lecture on May 10^th, 2022!

Interested? You can still register for the congress!