Donald L. Gill, PhD
Dr. Donald L. Gill received his PhD from the University of London, where he studied molecular biophysics. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research with Marty Rodbell on signal transduction mechanisms at the National Institutes of Health.
For the past 30 years, Dr. Gill’s lab has been studying the molecular mechanisms mediating Ca2+ signals. In this time he and his colleagues have defined many novel parameters of the structure, function and control of the Ca2+ signaling machinery, focusing on smooth muscle and immune cell models to understand the molecular cross-talk and functional integration that exists between Ca2+ sensors and Ca2+ channel proteins. His lab has maintained two complementary research projects for many years, one on Ca2+ signaling by STIM proteins in smooth muscle (GM 109279), and the other on control of Orai Ca2+ entry channels in B cells (GM 120783). In recent years, the lab has focused on the ubiquitously expressed STIM and Orai proteins that mediate essential but quite distinct Ca2+ signals in these two cell types.
Dr. Gill’s lab designed the screen used to first identify STIM proteins, and revealed that STIM and Orai proteins reconstitute the authentic Ca2+ release-activated Ca2+ (CRAC) current. More recently, the lab developed a spectrum of molecular probes and cell imaging approaches with which they have mapped the molecular interactions, dynamics and mechanism of the STIM-Orai coupling pathway. The tools they have developed have allowed Dr. Gill’s lab to make some critical advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms mediating store-operated Ca2+ entry, and to provide a new model for the STIM-Orai coupling interface.