Jurgen Wess
Jurgen Wess is affiliated with the National Institutes of Health (NIH-NIDDK) in Bethesda, Maryland. His research on NDI involves primarily studies on the V2 vasopressin receptor. His work has led to some promising results, particularly regarding the functional rescue of mutant V2 receptors.
It was the large variety of mutant V2 receptors associated with NDI that first drew Dr. Wess to this area of research. In earlier studies with different muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, Dr. Wess had shown that it is possible to functionally rescue truncated receptors with co-expressed receptor fragments or polypeptides. Encouraged by these results, he began looking for a system where his findings could be exploited therapeutically. NDI was a nearly perfect model. Not only did it have dozens of identified mutations, many of them truncations, but it also had a very clear and easy to measure phenotype. As Dr. Wess explains, "NDI was like being given a box of broken parts; our challenge is to develop the tools that could potentially fix them".
 The National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland |
Dr. Wess is quick to say that he doesn't consider himself a pioneer in NDI research. He feels the cloning of the vasopressin V2 receptor was a milestone in NDI research. Demonstrating that X-linked NDI is usually caused by mutations was equally significant. These discoveries formed the foundation for his own work. He is currently studying the possibility of delivering the receptors or receptor fragments to the kidney through viral vectors. Still in the extremely early stage of investigation, this technique shows potential for restoring function to some of the defective V2 receptors. Another area of interest for Dr. Wess is the mechanism by which the vasopressin receptors interact with other cellular proteins. His work has involved the mapping of the V2 vasopressin receptor domains which ultimately communicate with the Gs subset of the G proteins. So far, short segments of the V2 receptor that enable the receptor to selectively "talk" to this class of G proteins have been identified.
The future looks most promising to Dr. Wess in the development of gene therapeutic approaches to reduce or eliminate the symptoms of NDI patients. Germline gene replacement is not on today's horizon and may still pose unsolvable technical and ethical problems many years from now. "Repairing" genetic damage at the kidney level appears to be more viable, although the technology is not yet in place to effectively do this. Dr. Wess stresses that the development of an animal model of human X-linked NDI would be of great importance for testing new NDI therapies. However, besides strategies targeted at the V2 vasopressin receptor itself, other approaches to stimulate water reabsorption in the kidney should be pursued.
Dr. Wess was born and raised in Kerzell, Germany, a small town in the state of Hesse about 100 kilometers north of Frankfurt. His medical career began as a pharmacologist rather than a cell biologist. His wife, too, is a research scientist, studying embryonic development. Away from work Dr. Wess is a nature lover and sports enthusiast. He spends his recreational time playing tennis and soccer or hiking and camping in "wild places".
12 Articles
12 Articles