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Ernest Wright, Sc.D.
Affiliations
Member, JCCC Genitourinary Oncology Program Area
Education:
Degree: Sc.D.
Contact Information:
Email Address: ewright@mednet.ucla.edu
Work Address: Office
CHS
Los Angeles, CA 90095
UNITED STATES
Work Address: Laboratory
CHS
Los Angeles, CA 90095
UNITED STATES
Laboratory: http://149.142.237.182/
Direct Contact Information:
Work Phone Number: 310-825-6905 Office
310-825-6968 Laboratory
Additional Information:

Structure and Function of Cotransporters  The major goal of this program is to understand how ion gradients drive the accumulation of sugars, amino acids, dipeptides, osmolytes and neurotransmitters in cells. Our approach is to express cloned Na and H driven transporters in heterologous expressions systems and to monitor transport using biophysical techniques. Structure/function relations are explored using mutants and chimeras, and regulation is studied by activating protein kinases. In addition, we are working on a genetic disease called glucose-galactose malabsorption that is caused by defects in the intestinal Na/glucose cotransporter. Patients with the disease are screened for mutations and then we seek to unravel why the mutation causes defective sugar absorption. So far, we have identified missense, nonsense and splice-site mutations, and in the case of the missense mutations it appears that trafficking of the protein to the plasma membrane is impaired. Therapies are being developed to cure the disease.

Publications:
Loo DDF, Wright EM, Zeuthen T Water Pumps.. Journal of Physiology 2002; 542.1: 53-60.
Loo DDF.,Hirayama BA., Gallarado EM, Lam JT.,Turk E., Wright EM. Conformational changes copule Na and glucose transport.. PNAS 1998; 95: 7789-7794.
Turk E and Wright EM Membrane Topological Motifs in the SGLT Cotransporter Family.. J. Membrane Biology 1997; 159: 1-20.
Eskandari S, Loo DDF, Dai G, Levy R, Wright EM and Carracso N Thyroid Na+/I-Symporter: Mechanisms, Stoichiometry, and Specificity.. J. Biol. Chem. 1997; 272: 27230-27238.
Donal D.F. Loo, Bruce A. Hirayama, Movses H. Karakossian, Anne-Kristine Meinild and Ernest M. Wright Conformational dynamics ofr hSGLT1 during Na/glucose cotransport. J. General Physiology ; 128(6): 701-720.
Quick M, Wright EM Employing Escherichia coli to functionally express, purify, and characterize a human transporter.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. . 2002; 99(13): 8597-601.
Meinild AK, Hirayama BA, Wright EM, Loo DD Fluorescence studies of ligand-induced conformational changes of the Na(+)/glucose cotransporter.. Biochemistry. . 2002; 41(4): 1250-8.
Eskandari S, Snyder PM, Kreman M, Zampighi GA, Welsh MJ, Wright EM Number of subunits comprising the epithelial sodium channel.. The Journal of biological chemistry. . 1999; 274(38): 27281-6.
Eskandari S, Wright EM, Kreman M, Starace DM, Zampighi GA Structural analysis of cloned plasma membrane proteins by freeze-fracture electron microscopy.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. . 1998; 95(19): 11235-40.
Meinild A, Klaerke DA, Loo DD, Wright EM, Zeuthen T The human Na+-glucose cotransporter is a molecular water pump.. The Journal of physiology. . 1998; 508 ( Pt 1): 15-21.
Mart-n MG, Turk E, Lostao MP, Kerner C, Wright EM Defects in Na+/glucose cotransporter (SGLT1) trafficking and function cause glucose-galactose malabsorption.. Nature genetics. . 1996; 12(2): 216-20.


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