Barbara E. Ehrlich

Barbara E. Ehrlich is Professor of Pharmacology and of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Yale University working on the biophysics of membrane ion channels. Recent research investigates the function of polycystin-2, the inositol trisphosphate receptor, and the ryanodine receptor.

Ehrlich was born in New London, CT in 1952 and grew up in Newport, RI. Ehrlich attended Brown University, where she received a Bachelor of Science: ScB in Applied Mathematics and Biology. She then received her PhD from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1979 on the topic of membrane transport parameters in bipolar disorder.

At Brown University, Ehrlich worked with Helen Cserr, Professor of Physiology. Her doctoral advisor was Jared Diamond and she studied lithium transport in human red blood cells as a way to understand lithium treatment in bipolar disorder. Ehrlich completed her post doctoral research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. She then went on to work as a professor at the University of Connecticut for 11 years. At the University of Connecticut, she coined the term "Molecular Hermeneutics." Hermeneutics is a philosophical discipline derived from Hermes, who was the Messenger of the Gods and had to both deliver and interpret messages. Hermeneutics became the exegesis of the Bible, and eventually it evolved to interpretation, in particular of Truth and Beauty. She continues to be the Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Hermeneutics at Yale University, where she presently works.

Ehrlich began working at Yale University in 1997 as a Professor of Pharmacology and of Cellular and Molecular Physiology. At Yale, Ehrlich has mainly focused on intracellular calcium regulation. Her laboratory uses calcium imaging combined with electrophysiological, biochemical, and molecular techniques to study the classes of calcium release channels known to exist inside virtually all cells: the inositol trisphosphate receptor-gated channel, the ryanodine receptor, and polycystin 2. Ehrlich and her team work to understand the loss of calcium regulation observed in disease states as seen in cells from patients with polycystic kidney disease or leading to drug-induced peripheral neuropathy. The Ehrlich team hypothesizes that these abnormalities in function are consequences, at least in part, of altered intracellular calcium homeostasis and that these studies will lead to suitable treatment regimens.

From 2004-2011, Ehrlich was on the board of scientific counselors at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

• 2005                K.S. Cole Award for Excellence in Membrane Biophysics, Biophysical Society
• 1996                  H.F. Cserr Memorial Lecture, Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory
• 1995                  Blue Ribbon for Blueberry Pie, Barnstable County Fair, Falmouth, MA
• 1992, 1995        CAMEL Award for Best Pre-Clinical Course. Co-Organizer, Cardiovascular Subject Committee
• 1987-Summer   M.B.L. Kuffler Fellowship
• 1987                  The Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award in Biophysics
• 1986-1990      Pew Scholar in Biomedical science
• 1986-Summer   M.B.L. Summer Fellowship
• 1983-1986        The American Home Products Grant-in-Aid, New York Heart Association
• 1983-1986        Kurt P. Reiman Investigatorship, New York Heart Association
• 1980-1982        Sidney Blackmer Postdoctoral Fellowship, Muscular Dystrophy Foundation
• 1980-Summer  Grass Foundation Fellowship in Neurophysiology
• 1979-1980       Bank of America – Giannini Foundation Fellowship

• 2013–present    Wine steward, Berkeley College (Yale University)
• 2012-2016    Tenure Appointments Committee for the Biological Sciences, Yale University
• 2012-2016    Biological Science Advisory Committee, Yale University
• 2004-2010        Science Council, Marine Biological Laboratory
• 2002-2008        Trustee, Children's School of Science, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
• 1995-1998      Councillor, Biophysical Society
• 1995-1996        President, Society of General Physiologists
• 1993-1999        Science Council, Marine Biological Laboratory
• 1988-1990         Councilor, Society of General Physiologists
• 1989-1993      Trustee, Marine Biological Laboratory

Ehrlich was married to Lawrence B. Cohen, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Yale University. Ehrlich has one daughter, Lily Cohen, and is presently married to Stuart M. Johnson. Ehrlich splits her time between New York City, NY and New Haven, CT. Ehrlich has long been an avid baker, particularly of pies, and recently has begun focusing on ice cream and popsicles. In 1995, she won a Blue Ribbon for Blueberry Pie at the Barnstable County Fair in Falmouth, MA.