Dr. Anita Aperia, professor of pediatrics at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and former member of the Nobel Assembly, who is widely recognized for her groundbreaking research to medicine’s understanding of how the kidneys function in health and disease, visited Marshall University and the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine last week.
The visit was part of a series of public lectures hosted by the Marshall Institute for Interdisciplinary Research where work is focused on Na+/K+-ATPase—a protein often referred to as the “sodium potassium pump” because it directs many cellular processes in the heart, kidney and other tissues. By studying how this cellular signaling occurs, the institute’s researchers are working to develop new treatments for cancer, heart and kidney disease.
Aperia also served as a guest speaker at Marshall’s Department of Pediatrics grand rounds.
A native of Sweden, Aperia graduated from the Karolinska Institutet medical school and received her Ph.D. training at Yale University. She has been at the Karolinska Institutet since 1976, and as chairman of the department of pediatrics from 1987 to 1999, was the founder and project leader for Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital, the largest children’s hospital in Northern Europe.
In 1987, she was appointed to the Nobel Assembly for Physiology or Medicine in Stockholm, where she served as a member until 2003. From 1991 to 1996, she was a member of the Nobel Committee and in 2001 she was the first woman to chair the Nobel Assembly.
