Dr. Nancy Kaufmann

Genetics
K. Arndt
T.-L. Ashman
G. Campbell
D. Chapman
G. Hatfull
J. Hildebrand
L. Jacobson
S. Kalisz
J. Martens
V. Oke
W. Saunders
B. Stronach
S. Tonsor
R. Wood

Microbiology
G. Hatfull
R. Hendrix
J. Lawrence
V. Oke
J. Pipas
M. Popa
I. Campbell
R.L. Duda
S. Godfrey

Molecular Biology
K. Arndt
J. Franzen
P. Grabowski
G. Hatfull
R. Hendrix
L. Jen-Jacobson
J. Martens
C. Peebles
J. Pipas
J. Rosenberg
A. Schwacha
C. Walsh

Plant Biology
T.-L. Ashman
W. Carson
S. Kalisz
V. Oke
C. Partanen
S. Tonsor
B. Traw

Science Education
A. Bledsoe
K. Curto
L. Daniels
S. Godfrey
N. Kaufmann
C. LaFave
J. Newman
E. Polinko
M. Popa
L. Roberts
T. Seiflein
R. Sherwin
A. Slinskey Legg

Structural Biology
M. Grabe
J. Hempel
R. Hendrix
L. Jen-Jacobson
J. Rosenberg
A. VanDemark

Former Faculty

Photo of Dr.
Kaufmann

Aquaporins in Insect Homeostasis; Undergraduate Education and Research

Assistant Director of Undergraduate Research

Dr. Kaufmann received her Ph.D. in 2001 with David Van Vactor at Harvard University, performed her postdoctoral studies with Jeffrey Brodsky at the University of Pittsburgh, and joined the Department in 2006.

Currently, Dr. Kaufmann is not accepting graduate students in her laboratory. Dr. Kaufmann is accepting undergraduate researchers, and does sponsor students in other laboratories.

Professional Interests - Publications - Contact Information - Lab Personnel

Professional Interests of Nancy Kaufmann

The maintenance of fluid homeostasis is essential to the survival of an organism, and defects in this process lead to disease. At the cellular level, water channels, called aquaporins, allow for the rapid movement of water across the plasma membrane. Defects in this process in human lead to diseases such as diabetes insipidus.

The focus of this research is to use Drosophila melanogaster as a model system to further our understanding of these channel proteins. We plan to take a genetic approach to determining the function of the 8 aquaporins found in the Drosophila genome. Due to their small size, these insects are constantly at risk of rapid desiccation,yet they must maintain a low body weight in order to fly. A similar problem is confronted by the related dipteran, the mosquito Anopheles gambia which is responsible for the transmission of malaria. Understanding how aquaporins function in Drosophila melanogaster may allow us insight into disrupting the maintenance of fluid homeostasis in the malaria disease vector mosquito and in helping us to predict the effects of global climate change on the dipteran population.

Publication Archive
6 Citations
6 Abstracts
3 PDFs

Recent Publications of Nancy Kaufmann

Spring, J.H., S.R. Robichaux, N. Kaufmann, and J.L. Brodsky (2007) Localization of a Drosophila DRIP-like aquaporin in the Malpighian tubules of the house cricket, Acheta domesticus. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A Mol. Integr. Physiol. 148:92-100

Miller, K.E., J. DeProto, N. Kaufmann, B.N. Patel, A. Duckworth, and D. Van Vactor (2005) Direct observation demonstrates that Liprin-alpha is required for trafficking of synaptic vesicles. Curr. Biol. 15:684-689

Kaufmann, N., J.C. Mathai, W.G. Hill, J.A. Dow, M.L. Zeidel, and J.L. Brodsky (2005) Developmental expression and biophysical characterization of a Drosophila melanogaster aquaporin. Am. J. Physiol. Cell Physiol. 289:C397-C407 (PDF Reprint: 1.6 MB)

Krueger, N.X., R.S. Reddy, K. Johnson, J. Bateman, N. Kaufmann, D. Scalice, D. Van Vactor, and H. Saito (2003) Functions of the ectodomain and cytoplasmic tyrosine phosphatase domains of receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase Dlar in vivo. Mol. Cell. Biol. 23:6909-6921 (PDF Reprint: 681 kb)

Kaufmann, N., J. DeProto, R. Ranjan, H. Wan, and D. Van Vactor (2002) Drosophila liprin-alpha and the receptor phosphatase Dlar control synapse morphogenesis. Neuron 34:27-38

Kaufmann, N., Z.P. Wills, and D. Van Vactor (1998) Drosophila Rac1 controls motor axon guidance. Development 125:453-461 (PDF Reprint: 316 kb)

How to Contact Nancy Kaufmann

US Mail
University of Pittsburgh
Department of Biological Sciences
A259 Langley Hall
4249 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Phone, FAX, Internet
Office : (412) 383-5249
Lab : (412) 624-4830
FAX : (412) 624-4759
Email : nkaufman@pitt.edu
Web :

This Site is maintained by the Bioscience Webmaster; this page was last modified 27 April 2008