An introduction to Peter Stanfield's festschrift

This special symposium issue of The Journal of Physiology contains articles based on the seminars delivered by many of the speakers at a one day symposium in honour of Peter R. Stanfield, following his recent retirement. In reviewing Peter's career, Blair Grubb highlighted the extraordinary contribution that Peter has made to understanding the properties and functions of potassium channels: from his early work on skeletal muscle, to the famous Standen and Stanfield collaborations on inward rectification and founding of the Ion Channel Group, including studies of calcium currents and the discovery of K_ATP channels in 1985. Peter developed his exploration of potassium channels with forays into G-protein coupled inward rectifiers, delayed rectifiers and most recently the two-pore K⁺ channels (K2p), including cloning of TASK-5 in 2001.

Peter initially trained as a veterinarian at Cambridge University, but before completing this degree transferred to Natural Sciences. Following his undergraduate studies, he continued with his PhD under the supervision of Alan Hodgkin, investigating the electrical properties of skeletal muscle. At the same time, Bertil Hille was working as a post-doc in Hodgkin's lab and they have maintained a lifelong connection. On completion of his PhD, Peter moved to the Marine Biology Association at Plymouth for two years to study the electrical properties of fish skeletal muscle, and then returned to Cambridge as a physiology demonstrator before taking up a lectureship at the University of Leicester in 1974 under the guidance of Ron Whittam, the then head of Physiology. He rapidly moved through the academic ranks at Leicester, progressing to a readership in 1981 and then gaining a personal chair in 1987. He was head of the Department of Physiology at Leicester from 1989 to 1993 before moving to take up the chair in Molecular Physiology at the University of Warwick in 2001. Peter retired in 2009 after 45 years of outstanding service to the physiological sciences.

Peter gained many distinctions throughout his career including a DSc from the University of Cambridge in 1986 and Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2003. He also served on many local and national committees. He was a member of the Committee of The Physiological Society for two terms of 1985–1990 and 1995–1999, and was Honorary Secretary 1996–1999. He was a member of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Physiology 1981–1988. The considerable contribution that Peter has made to both The Journal and The Society makes it especially fitting that this symposium is published in The Journal of Physiology.

The festschrift took place at the University of Warwick's Medical School, with the audience and invited speakers (see Fig. 1) covering the full range of Peter's academic colleagues, past collaborators, ‘grown-up’ post-docs, and faithful friends. The conference was splendidly organised by Nick Dale and colleagues (for details see Dale et al. 2010). There was a note of sadness in recollecting the untimely death of Peter's wife, Pippa, and in noting the absence of special colleagues through illness – particularly Nick Standen, who is such a close friend and past co-conspirator in the Ion Channel Group at Leicester.

Figure 1. The participants in Peter Stanfield's festschrift (University of Warwick, 12 April 2010).

From left to right: Ramon Latore, Fran Ashcroft, Ian Forsythe and Peter Stanfield.

The reviews in this issue follow Peter's central research themes within potassium channel physiology, coloured by the special interests of the speakers and spanning K⁺ channel structure and biophysics, lipid/channel interactions, physiological function and the relevance to disease.

Ramon Latorre's review of the BK potassium channel explores the idea that the different gating functions of these channels (by voltage and intracellular calcium) reside in different parts or modules of the K⁺ channel and that the physiology reflects the allosteric interaction between these parts (Latorre et al. 2010). The gating theme is continued by Alistair Mathie with respect to the regulation of leak K⁺ channels of the K2p channel family, with reference to the TASK (TWIK-like acid-sensitive K⁺ channels) family and developing the idea that permeation is regulated by two gates (Mathie et al. 2010). A pharmacological and structural theme is developed in an overview of ether-á-go-go related gene (ERG) K⁺ channels, bringing together new evidence for activation of these channels by specific drugs and expanding the repertoire for control of these crucial arrhythmia moderators (Perry et al. 2010). Caroline Dart worked closely with Nick Standen and Peter. Her review gives a broad consideration of lipid microdomains and channel interactions within smooth muscle, supporting a thesis for dynamic regulation of ion channels within lipid-rafts (Dart, 2010). Bertile Hille then develops this theme with the idea of an instructional role for phosphoinositides on integral membrane proteins, illustrated by the M1 muscarinic receptor modulation of KCNQ/Kv7 channels (Falkenburger et al. 2010). Ian Forsythe's interest in voltage-gated K⁺ channels started with a post-doc in Peter's laboratory and has developed toward the understanding of native K⁺ channels and their physiological role and regulation within identified neurons of the auditory brainstem (Johnston et al. 2010). Finally Fran Ashcroft was Peter's first post-doc and here she treats us to an inspiring account of how her interests in K_ATP and diabetes have converged and grown toward understanding and treatment for some forms of neonatal diabetes (McTaggart et al. 2010).

Peter, the speakers and the audience all agreed the symposium was a great success and an enjoyable opportunity to meet old friends, and to listen, inform and exchange new ideas. Most importantly it was a fitting celebration of Peter Stanfield's work in understanding potassium channels and his influence in encouraging fresh generations to continue the exploration of these versatile regulators of excitability.