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Regulating CNS Fluid Flow to Halt Swelling and Slow Neurodegeneration
Aquaporins facilitate the passive, bidirectional flow of water in all cells and tissues. In the brain and spinal cord, aquaporin-4 is highly expressed and enriched at astrocyte endfeet, synapses and the glia limitans. It facilitates the exchange of water across the blood-spinal cord and blood-brain barriers, controlling cell volume, extracellular space volume and astrocyte migration. The perivascular enrichment of aquaporin-4 is consistent with its central role in CNS fluid flow and brain clearance, although the mechanism by which that role is exerted remains unknown. We have demonstrated that aquaporin-4 localization is dynamically regulated at the subcellular level, affecting membrane water permeability. In animal models of ageing, stroke, traumatic injury and sleep disruption, impairment of CNS fluid flow is associated with changes in perivascular aquaporin-4 localization. Each of these conditions represent established and emerging risk factors in developing neurodegeneration. Brain and spinal cord oedema are caused by the influx of water through aquaporin-4 in response to osmotic imbalances that occur following insults such as traumatic injury, stroke or tumour development. We have demonstrated that reducing dynamic subcellular relocalization of aquaporin-4 to the blood-spinal cord or blood-brain barriers reduces oedema and accelerates functional recovery in rodent injury models. Given the difficulties in developing pore-blocking aquaporin-4 inhibitors or activators and controversies in the field over the status of many proposed molecules, targeting dynamic aquaporin-4 subcellular relocalization provides a new approach to modulating aquaporin-4 function. This approach also opens up new treatment avenues for CNS oedema, neurovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, and provides a framework to address fundamental unanswered questions about water homeostasis in health and disease.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
Roslyn Bill is Aston University’s 50th Anniversary Professor of Biotechnology and Director of Aston Institute for Membrane Excellence, which is funded by a £10M grant from Research England. Roslyn obtained her Batchelor, Master and Doctoral degrees from Oxford University and spent postdoctoral periods in Cambridge, the University of Michigan (as a Fulbright Scholar) and Gothenburg University before moving to Aston in 2002. She was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant in 2023 for her work on the regulation of aquaporin water channels in the human brain. She is a founding member of the aquaporin sub-committee of the IUPHAR/Guide to Pharmacology and Chief Scientific Officer of Estuar Pharmaceuticals. She served two terms as Chair of BBSRC Research Committee E and recently completed her tenure as Executive Editor of BBA Biomembranes. Roslyn is currently a Visiting Fellow hosted by Corpus Christi College and DPAG and a ‘Big if True Science’ Fellow supported by Renaissance Philanthropy and ARIA.
Date:
13 February 2026, 13:00
Venue:
Sherrington Library, off Parks Road OX1 3PT
Venue Details:
Sherrington Building
Speaker:
Professor Roslyn M Bill (Aston University)
Organising department:
Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (DPAG)
Organisers:
Dr Thomas Keeley (DPAG, University of Oxford),
Dr Mootaz Salman (DPAG, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
events@dpag.ox.ac.uk
Host:
Professor David Paterson (DPAG, University of Oxford)
Part of:
DPAG Head of Department Seminar Series
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Hannah Simm
