Alberto Vitari, who identified the SPAK/OSR1 protein kinases as the first physiological substrates for WNK1 protein kinase mutated in humans with Gordon's hypertension syndrome has successfully defended in PhD thesis. His examiners were Julian Downward (London Research Institute) and Mike Ashford (Neurosciences Institute, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee). Alberto is now commencing Postdoctoral research at Genentech working with Vishva Dixit on characterizing the roles of novel deubiquitinating enzymes in cell signalling.