Announcements2011 Renal Section Young Investigator AwardPublished Online:01 Apr 2011https://doi.org/10.1152/ajprenal.00103.2011This is the final version - click for previous versionMoreSectionsPDF (123 KB)Download PDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesGet permissionsTrack citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInWeChat The Renal Section presents the Young Investigator Award for 2011 to Robert Fenton, PhD, Professor, Department of Anatomy, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark. Dr. Fenton will present his Award lecture at the 2011 Experimental Biology meeting in Washington, DC, on April 10 and will be honored at the Renal Section dinner on April 11.Dr. Robert FentonDownload figureDownload PowerPointDr. Fenton earned his PhD in Molecular Physiology at the University of Manchester (UK) in 2001. Following a one-year fellowship at Manchester, he did his postdoctoral training in the Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Metabolism, directed by Mark Knepper, PhD. His postdoctoral training was supported in its third year by the prestigious Claude Enfant Fellowship. Following his postdoctoral training, he was recruited to Aarhus in 2005. There he has continued to be recognized for his research abilities, earning the Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (2007), the Danish Medical Research Council Young Investigator Award (2007), and the APS Renal Section New Investigator Award (2008). He is currently the MSO Professor of Molecular Biology in the Department of Anatomy, University of Aarhus. Dr. Fenton's rise to academic achievement is both rapid and well earned.Dr. Fenton's doctoral work identified urea transporters and explored gene expression and regulation of transporters, as well as chromosomal location. He continued a molecular biology approach to study urea transporters at the National Institutes of Health, but there combined his expertise with physiological regulation studies. He made a major breakthrough in 2004, reporting a urinary concentrating defect in urea transporter-deficient (UT-A1/3) mice that he developed. These mice exhibited a urinary concentrating defect, but the mechanism of this defect proved to be different from what had been previously accepted and has subsequently influenced our understanding of urea transport. He later characterized the phenotype of UT-A transporter-deficient mice, which are now widely used in renal physiology. At Aarhus, he has continued to study urea transport, but turned his attention more to aquaporins and other critical renal transporters. His interest in aquaporin-2 (AQP2) led to the discovery of phosphorylation sites on the AQP2 C terminus that has become a recent focus of his work. Among his findings are that s269 phospho-AQP2 is expressed only at the cell surface; that association of several proteins with AQP2 is dependent on its phosphorylation state; that phosphorylation does not modify AQP2 water permeability; and that phosphorylation of AQP2 regulates its endocytosis. He continues to have an interest in other renal transporters and membrane proteins, as well, including ferroportin-1, succinate receptors, and AQP4.Dr. Fenton exemplifies the modern physiologist who combines molecular, cell, and whole kidney approaches to solving problems. His successes early in his career foreshadow a promising and productive scientist. The Renal Section is happy to recognize Robert Fenton with the Renal Section Young Investigator Award for 2011.The Young Investigator Award selection committee was composed of John Imig (Chair), Thomas Pallone, and I. David Weiner.This article has no references to display. Download PDF Previous Back to Top FiguresReferencesRelatedInformation More from this issue > Volume 300Issue 4April 2011Pages F1045-F1045 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2011 the American Physiological Societyhttps://doi.org/10.1152/ajprenal.00103.2011History Published online 1 April 2011 Published in print 1 April 2011 Metrics