Society of
General physiologists

In 2005, SGP instituted two new Paul F. Cranefield awards, one each to be given annually to a deserving postdoctoral fellow and a graduate student who are the first authors of manuscripts published in Journal of General Physiology. In truly exceptional cases, undergraduate students will be considered for a third award. Awardees will receive $1000 in addition to being featured on the Society's website.

To be considered for such an award, the candidate must have had a major role in the planning, execution, and analysis of the results - and contributed significantly to the writing. Candidates shall write a one-page summary of the work, emphasizing its overall significance and describing specifically his or her contributions to the research and writing, and email it to admin@sgpweb.org.

2025 Cranefield Postdoc Awardee: Man Si, Ph.D.

Man Si for “Epilepsy-associated Kv1.1 channel subunits regulate intrinsic cardiac pacemaking in mice”

J Gen Physiol (2024) 156 (9): e202413578  doi.org/10.1085/jgp.202413578

The work of Si and colleagues is a fascinating and rigorous study of the role of the potassium channel encoded by the KCNA1 gene in cardiac pacemaking. This channel, the mammalian form of the prototypical potassium channel, Shaker, was until now thought to be predominant in brain, but not in heart. Challenging experiments on dissociated heart and sino-atrial node from wild type and KCNA1 knockout backgrounds establish a clear role for this channel in pacemaker cells, with important implications for mechanisms of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy and potentially other cardiac pathologies.

2025 Cranefield Student Awardee: Rachael Lucero, Ph.D.

Rachael Lucero for “Transport of metformin metabolites by guanidinium exporters of the small multidrug resistance family”

J Gen Physiol (2024) 156 (3): e202313464 doi.org/10.1085/jgp.202313464

Bacteria use Small Multidrug Resistance (SMR) transporters to export xenobiotics and metabolites. Lucero and colleagues show that SMRGdx transporters can effectively export the byproducts of microbial metabolism of metformin, a common antidiabetic compound found in wastewater. Using a combination of electrophysiological recordings, binding assays and phylogenetic analyses they show SMRGdx can bind and transport guanylurea at rates comparable to the native substrate guanidium with an intact transport stoichiometry, thus preserving transport efficiency. This work might pave the way to repurpose these bacteria for wastewater treatment.

(click here for past award winners)