Professor, Physiology
Professor, Ophthalmology
After receiving a doctorate at the University of East Anglia in his native England, Nick D brought his work on membrane transport physiology to the University of Colorado, where he spent ten years. He moved to the University of Louisville in 1986 and then joined the University of Arizona in 2006. His laboratory studies the mechanisms which control ocular pressure, fluid movement and the regulation of ion transport molecules in lens and optic nerve. His current focus is on how cells sense and respond to mechanical distortion. Mechanosensitive ion channels like TRPV4 and TRPV1 act as sensors. In the lens, for example, TRPV4 operates as the trigger of a feedback loop that stimulates Na,K-ATPase activity