Sarah K. England, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Special Assistant to the Vice President for Medical Affairs
Co-Director, Iowa Biosciences Advantage (IBA) Program
Faculty Member: Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program

Medical College of Wisconsin, Dept. of Physiology, 1993

Research Interests

My long-term research interest lies in the role of ion channels in smooth muscle as they pertain to women's health. The main objective of my laboratory is to determine the role of ion channels in modulating uterine and vascular smooth muscle excitability and contractility. One focus of the laboratory is to determine how both small and large conductance calcium-activated K+ channels modulate uterine excitability and contractility during gestation and parturition. We study this using a multidisciplinary approach with molecular, biochemical, electrophysiological, and immunological techniques. I am also interested in the trafficking of this channel and how its association with accessory proteins regulates uterine excitability in both non-pregnant and pregnant states. We also study how this channel behaves in the vascular system in response to hormonal challenges. Research aimed at smooth muscle relaxation will have a wide range of benefits including alleviation of uterine dysfuntcion that results in premature labor and enhanced relaxation of vascular smooth muscle.

Representative References

1. Brainard, A.M., A.J. Miller, J.R. Martens, and S.K. England (2005) Maxi-K channels localize to caveolae in human myometrium: A role for an actin -channel- caveolin complex in the regulation of myometrial smooth muscle K+ current Am. J. Physiol., 289: C49-C57.

2. Korovkina, V.P., A.M. Brainard, and S.K. England (2006) Translocation of an endoproteolytically cleaved maxi-K channel isoform: mechanisms to induce human myometrial cell repolarization. J. Physiol, 573 (2) 329-341.

3. Femling, J.K., Cherny, V.V. Morgan, D., Rada, B., Davis, A.P., Czirjak, G., Enyedi, P., England, S.K. Moreland, J.G., Ligeti, E., Nauseef, W.M., and T. E. DeCoursey. (2006) The antibacterial activity of human neutrophils and eosinophils requires proton channels but not BK channels. J. Gen. Physiol., 127(6) 659-672.

4. Brainard, A.M., V.P. Korovkina, and S.K. England (2007) Potassium channels and uterine function Sem. Cell and Develop. Biol. 18 (3): 332-339.

5. Nuno, D.W., V.P. Korovkina, S.K. England, and K.G. Lamping (2007) RhoA activation contributes to sex differences in vascular contraction. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 27: 1934-1940.