Bertil Hille

Hille was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His father is Carl Einar Hille, a Yale math professor and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He attended the Foote School and Westminster School (Connecticut).{{cite book |editor-last1=Squire |editor-first1=Larry R. |author-last1=Hille |author-first1=Bertil |chapter=Bertil Hille |title=The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography: Volume 7 |date=9 September 2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-990976-6 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Q5pAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA140 |access-date=10 May 2022 |language=en}}

Hille received his B.S. summa cum laude in Zoology from Yale University (1962) and his Ph.D. in Life Sciences from The Rockefeller University (1967). During his PhD, Hille started his long-term collaboration with Clay Armstrong, who he shared many awards with several decades later. After completing his Ph.D, Hille did postdoc research with Sir Alan L. Hodgkin (1963 Nobel laureate for the basis of nerve action potentials) and Richard Keynes at the University of Cambridge, England.{{cite journal |last1=Hille |first1=Bertil |title=A Life of Biophysics |journal=Annual Review of Biophysics |date=9 May 2022 |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=1–17 |doi=10.1146/annurev-biophys-120121-074034 |pmid=34932910 |s2cid=245397023 |issn=1936-122X|doi-access=free }}

== Career==

In 1968 Hille joined the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington's School of Medicine. In 2005, he was named the Wayne E. Crill Endowed Professor. On July 1, 2021, he became a professor emeritus.{{cite news |last1=Butler |first1=Steve |title=Bertil Hille Continues as Professor Emeritus |url=https://huddle.uwmedicine.org/bertil-hille-professor-emeritus/ |access-date=10 May 2022 |work=The Huddle |date=28 June 2021}}

Bertil Hille is married to Merrill Burr Hille, Professor Emerita of Biology at the University of Washington, and has two sons, Erik Darwin Hille and Jon Trygve Hille Grey.

Bertil Hille pioneered the concept of ion channels as membrane proteins forming gated aqueous pores (with Clay Armstrong).{{cite journal |last1=Kruger |first1=Larisa C. |last2=Isom |first2=Lori L. |title=Voltage-Gated Na + Channels: Not Just for Conduction |journal=Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology |date=June 2016 |volume=8 |issue=6 |pages=a029264 |doi=10.1101/cshperspect.a029264 |pmid=27252364 |pmc=4888818 }}{{cite journal |last1=Hille |first1=Bertil |last2=Armstrong |first2=Clay M. |last3=MacKinnon |first3=Roderick |title=Ion channels: From idea to reality |journal=Nature Medicine |date=October 1999 |volume=5 |issue=10 |pages=1105–1109 |doi=10.1038/13415 |pmid=10502800 |s2cid=5216271 |url=https://laskerfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/1999_hille.pdf |access-date=10 May 2022}} He showed that Na+ and K+ channels of axons could be distinguished by drugs such as tetrodotoxin and tetraethylammonium ion, and that their ionic selectivity can be understood by limiting pore size, the selectivity filter, and by movements of ions through a series of saturable sites. He showed that local anesthetics enter Na+ channels in a state-dependent manner.{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Angus M. |title=Ion channels: the concept emerges |journal=The Journal of Physiology |date=December 2019 |volume=597 |issue=24 |pages=5725–5729 |doi=10.1113/JP279059 |pmid=31617592 |s2cid=204739080 |language=en |issn=0022-3751|doi-access=free }}

In 1984, Hille started a new direction of studying the modulation of ion channels by G protein–coupled receptors. He distinguished two new signaling pathways for excitable cells. A fast, pertussis toxin-sensitive pathway turned on inward rectifier K+ channels and turned off Ca2+ channels by G protein Gβγ subunits. A slow, pertussis toxin-insensitive pathway turned off some K+ and Ca2+ channels by depleting the plasma membrane phosphoinositides, phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2). New tools and findings from the Hille lab, together with the initial finding (1996) from Donald W. Hilgemann's lab at UT southwestern, demonstrated that PIP2 is an essential cofactor for many ion channels and transporters. The low-abundance signaling lipid PIP2 indeed plays a significant role in regulating neuronal and cardiac excitability. Hille has developed a detailed model of the PIP2 loss mechanism and its effects on the muscarinic inhibition of M-channels.{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=David A. |title=Neurons, Receptors, and Channels |journal=Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology |date=6 January 2020 |volume=60 |issue=1 |pages=9–30 |doi=10.1146/annurev-pharmtox-010919-023755 |pmid=31914894 |s2cid=210120471 |issn=0362-1642|doi-access=free }}

Hille has published more than 200 papers and book chapters. He is the author of multiple editions of Ion Channels of Excitable Membranes, described as an essential introduction not just for beginners but for readers throughout the areas of biochemistry and biophysics. Hille's book is considered to mark a turning point in the field,{{cite journal |last1=Aldrich |first1=Richard W. |title=A new standard: A review of Handbook of Ion Channels |journal=Journal of General Physiology |date=1 August 2015 |volume=146 |issue=2 |pages=119–121 |doi=10.1085/jgp.201511461 |pmid=26216856 |pmc=4516783 }}{{cite book |last1=Hille |first1=Bertil |title=Ion channels of excitable membranes |date=2001 |publisher=Sinauer |location=Sunderland, Mass. |isbn=9780878933211 |edition=3rd}} defining the modern era of ion channel studies.{{cite journal |last1=Stevens |first1=Charles F. |title=Defining the field of ion channels |journal=Nature Neuroscience |date=February 2002 |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=93 |doi=10.1038/nn0202-93 |s2cid=2469334 |language=en |issn=1546-1726|doi-access=free }}

The book is known for its clarity of language,{{cite journal |last1=Goldstein |first1=Steve A. N. |title=All Grown up and Ready to Rumble |journal=Cell |date=2 November 2001 |volume=107 |issue=3 |pages=274–276 |doi=10.1016/S0092-8674(01)00555-4 |s2cid=18149385 |url=https://escholarship.org/content/qt6cg9m5gt/qt6cg9m5gt_noSplash_c2c3c8940bb386ad7f45a44732f6d565.pdf?t=q6kliz |access-date=10 May 2022 |language=English |issn=0092-8674}} its ability to communicate to both the beginner and the specialist,{{cite web |first=Lukas K. |last=Buehler |url=http://www.whatislife.com/reviews/hille.htm|title=Reviews: Ionic Channels of Excitable Membranes |date=May 5, 2003|website=What is Life |accessdate=26 February 2010}} its attention to research history, and the breadth and depth of its scientific coverage.

• 1986 - Elected to the National Academy of Sciences{{cite web |title=Bertil Hille |url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/45460.html |website=National Academy of Sciences |access-date=10 May 2022}}
• 1990 - Bristol-Myers Squibb Award{{cite news |last1=Dietz |first1=Claire |title=Catterall selected for Bristol-Myers Squibb Award in neuroscience research |url=https://www.washington.edu/news/2003/05/15/catterall-selected-for-bristol-myers-squibb-award-in-neuroscience-research/ |access-date=10 May 2022 |work=UW News |date=May 15, 2003 |language=en}}
• 1996 - Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize at Columbia University (with Clay Armstrong){{cite web|url= https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/research/louisa-gross-horwitz-prize/horwitz-prize-awardees |title=The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology Or Biochemistry|accessdate=26 February 2010}}{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/archives/vol22/vol22_iss6/record2206.16.html |author-first=Virgil |author-last=Renzulli |title=Two Biophysicists Win Columbia's Horwitz Prize|date=October 11, 1996|publisher=Columbia University Record|accessdate=26 February 2010}}
• 1998 - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences{{cite web |title=Bertil Hille |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/bertil-hille |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |access-date=10 May 2022 |language=en}}
• 1999 - Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (with Rod MacKinnon and Clay Armstrong){{cite web|url=http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/1999_b_description.htm|title=Function and structure of ion channel 1999 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award |year=2009 |publisher=LASKER FOUNDATION|accessdate=26 February 2010}}{{cite news |title=6 Scientists Named as Winners of Lasker Awards |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/28/health/6-scientists-named-as-winners-of-lasker-awards.html |access-date=10 May 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=28 September 1999}}
• 2001 Gairdner Foundation International Award (with Armstrong and MacKinnon), "For the elucidation of the mechanism of action and molecular structure of cation channels".{{cite web |title=Bertil Hille |url=https://gairdner.org/award_winners/bertil-hille/ |website=Gairdner Foundation |access-date=10 May 2022}}
• 2002 - Elected to the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine){{cite news |title=UW professor Dr. Bertil Hille named to Institute of Medicine |url=https://www.washington.edu/news/2002/10/15/uw-professor-dr-bertil-hille-named-to-institute-of-medicine/ |work=UW News |access-date=10 May 2022|date=October 15, 2002 |language=en}}
• 2008 - Doctorate of Science honoris causa, The Rockefeller University{{cite news |title=Rockefeller University to hold 50th commencement June 12 |url=https://www.rockefeller.edu/news/2309-rockefeller-university-to-hold-50th-commencement-june-12/ |access-date=10 May 2022 |work=News |date=June 9, 2008 |language=en}}
• 2009 - Bard Lecture, Johns Hopkins University{{cite web |title=The Bard Lectureship – Department of Physiology |url=http://physiology.bs.jhmi.edu/the-bard-lectureship/ |website=Department of Physiology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |access-date=10 May 2022}}
• 2018 - Distinguished Science in Medicine Lecture, University of Washington School of Medicine

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100203193919/http://depts.washington.edu/pbiopage/people_fac_page.php?fac_ID=17 Faculty page at UW]

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Category:1940 births

Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:21st-century American biochemists

Category:Living people

Category:University of Washington faculty

Category:Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research

Category:Electrophysiologists

Category:Members of the National Academy of Medicine

Category:Yale University alumni