Prof. Dr. Ernest M. Wright

In 1967 Wright began his seminal studies on nutrient, salt and water transport across the epithelial cells of the intestine, kidney and choroid plexus. Later he focused on the structure and function of a family of membrane transport proteins known as sodium sugar cotransporters (SLC5). In 1984 his lab identified the first member of the SLC5 family, in 1987 invented expression cloning to isolate cDNAs, and in 1991 was the first to identify mutations in a transporter gene that are responsible for a genetic disorder, glucose-galactosemalabsorption.
Currently his goals are to understand: (i) the molecular mechanism of sodium cotransporters. This is being addressed by structural and functional studies on recombinant proteins; and (ii) how SLC5 proteins contribute to glucose homeostasis in health and disease. This is being studied by novel imaging methods in normal subjects and patients with genetic disorders of glucose transport and metabolism.