An internationally recognized electrolytes authority will discuss “Molecular Bases of Potassium and Sodium Balance, Electrolyte Disorders, and Hypertension” in the Robert W. Schrier, MD, Endowed Lectureship on Thursday, October 24.
Paul A. Welling, MD, holds the Joseph S. and Ester Handler Endowed Professorship of Laboratory Research in Nephrology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He also serves as codirector of the Maryland Polycystic Kidney Disease Research and Translation Core Center and codirector of the Biomedical Resource Core of the Johns Hopkins O’Brien Center to Advance Kidney Health Equity.
A major focus of Dr. Welling's research is on developing a mechanistic understanding of how potassium in the diet affects blood pressure as well as cardiovascular and kidney health. His laboratory is recognized for elucidating how ion transport molecules in the kidney control salt balance and discovering how these molecules go awry in disorders of electrolyte homeostasis and blood pressure.
In recent years, he has focused on developing a molecular understanding of the relationship between sodium and potassium in the diet, inherited susceptibilities of hypertension, and kidney diseases. His group uses a multidisciplinary approach, combining modern methods of molecular genetics, genomics, cellular biology, and biochemistry with state-of-the-art physiologic and pathophysiologic phenotyping techniques to translate genetic discoveries to mechanistic understandings of electrolyte transport physiology, hypertension, and kidney diseases.
Dr. Welling currently serves as principal investigator on three research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health and is the North American coordinator and principal investigator on the Leducq Foundation Networks of Excellence on Potassium in Hypertension.
He has held leadership and scientific advisory roles with ASN, the National Institutes of Health, and the American Physiological Society. He has served on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Physiology–Renal Physiology, The Journal of Physiological Sciences, the Journal of Biological Chemistry, and the Annual Review of Physiology. Dr. Welling has received many honors, including the Steven Hebert Award and the Carl W. Gottschalk Distinguished Lectureship from the American Physiological Society and the Donald Seldin Lecture from the American Heart Association.
He received his medical degree from The University of Kansas and completed his postdoctoral training at Yale School of Medicine. He worked for many years at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he rose to the rank of full professor and director of the Maryland Center for Kidney Discovery. He joined Johns Hopkins in 2019.