Crowded Rooms: How Pitt and Carnegie Mellon Researchers Solved a Decades-Old Mystery

April 19, 2026by ShiwarskiLab

UPMC Press Release  ·  By Julia O’Brien, Ph.D., R.N.  ·  October 31, 2022

Pitt and CMU researchers, including Dr. Shiwarski and collaborators from the Subramanya lab, discovered how cells sense molecular crowding and regulate volume through WNK1 protein condensates — resolving a longstanding question in cell biology with implications for kidney disease and osmotic stress response.

Article Link: https://inside.upmc.com/crowded-rooms-how-pitt-and-carnegie-mellon-researchers-solved-a-decades-old-mystery/