Dr. Delos Santos
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Pediatric Nephrology

During his fellowship and for two additional years supported by an NIH individual NRSA, Dr. Delos Santos has studied G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signal transduction, specifically the signaling events associated with the beta 1-adrenergic GPCR. This receptor is important to the areas of hypertension, salt and water balance, as well as heart failure. Dr. Delos Santos investigated a newly discovered structural feature of the receptor known as the C-IV domain. Once thought to exist as a linear structure, through computer modeling studies (modeled after rhodopsin, a related GPCR), it is now thought to assume a helical (spiral) structure. His study methods were based in site-directed mutagenesis, a means to change key amino-acid ‘building blocks’ of the receptor, to determine their importance in downstream signaling events observed through biochemical, pharmacological, and microscopy techniques. The results of these studies will lead to more effective therapies for hypertension, renal disease and heart failure. This work was performed in the laboratory of Dr. Sulieman Bahouth in the Department of Pharmocology and resulted in the following publication:

Delos Santos NM, Gardner LA, White SW, Bahouth SW: Characterization of the residues in helix 8 of the beta-1 adrenergic receptor that are involved in coupling the receptor to G proteins. Journal of Biological Chemistry 281: 12896-12907, 2006.

Since July 1, 2005, Dr. Delos Santos has worked in the laboratory of Rhadakhrishna Rao in the Department of Physiology. He recently received a Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center small grant and has been designated as an Accredo scholar for his project, "Oxidative stress and podocyte monolayer barrier function". He currently has funding from a New Investigator Award from the Children's Foundation Research Center for his project' "Podocyte Proteomic Consequences of Oxidative Stress." The award is for $50,000 for the period July 1, 2006 - June 30, 2007.