Born in Athens, Greece, Dr. Sadis Matalon came to the United States in 1966 as an undergraduate Fulbright Scholar and subsequently received a Bachelor of Arts in Physics from Macalester College, cum laude with Special Departmental Honors (1970), followed by a Master of Science in Physics from the University of Minnesota (1973). He continued with a Ph.D. in Physiology (1975) under the mentorship of O.D. Wangensteen and entitled his dissertation “Water and Non-electrolyte Solute Transport across the Pulmo­nary Capillaries in New­born Rabbits.” While at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Matalon embraced the opportunity to work with Dr. Arnold Leonard and Dr. Carl Hunt to quantify abnormalities of gas exchange in premature infants with hyaline membrane disease using mass spectrometry. After spending a year as an Associate in the Department of Pediatrics (Children’s Hospital) and Department of Physiology at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, he moved in 1976 to the Department of Physiology at the University of Buffalo as a Research Assistant Professor. While working with Dr. Leon Farhi on gas exchange, ventilation perfusion abnormalities, and pulmonary oxygen toxicity, Dr. Matalon was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1977 and to Associate Professor with tenure in 1982. He worked closely with Dr. Robert Notter and Dr. Bruce Holm from the University of Rochester during this time, studying physiological, biochemical and biophysical injury to pulmonary surfactants when breathing 100% oxygen in vivo and in vitro and also with Dr. John Krasney to assess circulatory changes and distribution of regional blood flow in conscious sheep exposed to hypoxia and hyperoxia.

In 1987 Dr. Matalon took a sabbatical with Dr. Bruce Freeman at the Department of Anesthesiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and has remained at UAB since. He collaborated with Dr. Freeman and Dr. Joseph Beckman, publishing numerous papers with them on mechanisms and modifications of oxidant injury to epithelial tissues. He also collaborated with Dr. Dale Benos (deceased) to elucidate the biochemical and biophysical nature of ion channels in lung epithelial cells and has concentrated on identifying basic mechanisms by which reactive species alters lung ion channel and pulmonary surfactant structure function relationships in vivo and in vitro. While serving as the Principal Investigator of a CounterACT Center of Excellence (U54 multi-investigator grant) funded by NIEHS from 2008–2011, he collaborated with Dr. Rakesh Patel, Dr. Edward M. Postlethwait and Dr. Giuseppe Squadrito to identify novel treatments for chlorine induced lung injury and also with Dr. Sven Eric Jordt, on the role of TRPA1 channels on chlorine induced lung injury.  These very productive collaborations are ongoing.

He was named the Alice McNeal Endowed Chair of Anesthesiology in 1999, appointed Associate Dean for Postdoctoral Education in 2001, Senior Associate Dean of the Graduate School and Assistant Provost of Research in 2002, Acting Associate Provost for Research in December of 2002 and Acting Vice President of UAB in July 2003. In 2008 he was named the Founding Director of the Pulmonary Injury and Repair Center and in 2012 Distinguished Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he currently serves as the Vice Chair and Director of the Division of Molecular and Translational Biomedicine of the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine and as the Director of the Pulmonary Injury and Repair Center, Heersink School of Medicine. 

Dr. Matalon has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1978 and received a Career Investigator Award by the American Lung Association (1987–1992), a NIH MERIT Award (1997–2007), a Recognition Award for Scientific Accomplishment by the American Thoracic Society (2002), and various awards for teaching from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, including the Joint Health Sciences Presidential Teaching Award (1997), Argus Society Award for Instructional Excellence (Best Instructor, First Year Medical Class; 1997, 1998, 2001) and the Caduceus award for Best Basic Science Professor by the 2004 Heersink School of Medicine Class. In 2010, he received an Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Thessaly, Larisa, Greece. 

In both 1997 and 2000, Dr. Matalon (in collaboration with Dr. Jacob Iasha Sznajder from Northwestern University) organized two Advanced Study Institutes on acute lung injury (sponsored by the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO;) in Corfu, Greece; and also served as Co-Director (along with Dr. Lester Kobzik, Harvard School of Public Health) of two workshops on Environmental Lung Disease: Environmental Chemical Threats and Lung Injury (Limassol, Cyprus, 2009–2010).

Dr. Matalon has served as Associate Editor of News in Physiological Sciences (1997–2003) and Associate Editor and Deputy Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology (2003–2011). He has been on the Editorial Board of AJP-Lung since 1994 and has been a member of the American Physiological Society since 1975, which culminated in his being named Editor-in-Chief of AJP-Lung (2012-2018) and Editor-in-Chief of Physiological Reviews (2018-2023). His current research interests include redox modulation of lung ion channels and implications on lung fluid balance, viral (RSV and influenza) induced injury to the mammalian alveolar epithelium and developing countermeasures against oxidant gas injury to mammalian lungs. He is the Principal Investigator of an R01 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute currently in its 27^th year, Co- Principal Investigator of two R21 grants (with Dr. Timothy Ness and Dr. Victor M. Darley-Usmar, respectively) and a Co- Principal Investigator of a U01 (with Dr. Rakesh Patel) funded by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the CounterACT Network. He has trained a large number of fellows who are now independent investigators and continues to be involved in day-to-day experimental design, data analysis, grants writing and manuscript preparation, training graduate students, and teaching pulmonary physiology to graduate students, medical and dental students, and residents.

Located in Pittman Biomedical Research Building (PBMR), the Matalon Lab research facilities include:

• Two interconnected laboratories (810 sq. ft. each; BMR II 242 and 247), divided into bays. Each laboratory contains five desks with internet connections for research associates, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.
• The first laboratory (810 sq. ft.) is designated for cell isolation, biochemical and molecular biology studies.
• A secluded area of this laboratory has been designated for molecular biology experiments (generation of cRNAs/cDNAs).
• Another area of this laboratory has been designated for Western blotting, SDS PAGE, immunoprecipitation and in vitro phosphorylation studies.
• The second laboratory (810 sq. ft) is designated for the isolation of lung epithelial cells from mice and rats, and for the measurements of fluid reabsorption across the alveolar epithelium in vivo and confluent monolayers of epithelial cells mounted in Ussing chamber.
• A 150 sq. ft. electrically shielded room housing a patch-clamp rig for patching isolated epithelial cells in the whole cell and cell attached modes and a recently constructed patch clamp rig for patching epithelial cells in lung slices.
• A 200 sq. ft. laboratory housing all equipment for the isolation of oocytes from Xenopus laevis injecting them with cRNAs and for the recording whole cell and single channel currents across them.
• A 200 sq. ft. laboratory equipped with a Biosafety Level II hood, housing all necessary equipment for delivering aerosolized agents (ascorbate, beta 2 agonists) to mice and rats.

General Equipment

• Eight IBM-compatible computers and two Laser printers
• Five microscopes
• An IEC Micromax centrifuge
• Three pH meters

Molecular Biology Studies

• Eppendorf Mastercycler Gradient
• Sorvall Legend TR centrifuge
• IEC Micromax centrifuge (International Equipment Company)
• UV transilluminator (FBTIV-88, Fisher Sci)
• Power Pac-300 power supply (Bio-Rad)
• Agarose gel Electrophoresis unit (Sub-cell GT, Bio-Rad)
• Labnet 211D incubator
• Eppendorf thermomixer 5436
• Controlled environment incubator shaker (New Brunswick Scientific Co)

Western blotting, SDS PAGE, immunoprecipitation and in vitro phosphorylation studies

• BioRad Power Pac 300
• BioRad Power Pac 1000
• Mini Protein III Electrophoresis cell, Protein IIxi vertical Electrophoresis cell, Criterion Electrophoresis cell, Minitransblot cell, Criterion transblot cell
• Rocker Rotator plate forms
• Two Microcentrifuges

Ion transport across confluent monolayers of epithelial cells

• Eight Ussing chambers (Jim’s Instruments; Iowa City, IA),
• One epithelial voltage clamp (VCC-600; Physiologic Instruments; San Diego, CA)
• Dedicated computer with the Acquire and Analyze program for online data acquisition and analysis

Measurements of alveolar fluid clearance across the lung epithelium in mice and rats

• Six Harvard Apparatus Small Animal Ventilators
• VAPRO Vapor Pressure Osmometer
• Oxygen saturation sensor: MouseOx system (STARR Life Sciences Corp.)

Patch-clamp: isolated epithelial cells

• Vibration-free table: Micro-g TMC (Technical Manufacturing Corporation) Faraday cage
• Olympus IX-71 Inverted Fluorescent Microscope
• Burleigh PCS-6000 Motorized Micromanipulator
• Axopatch 200B Integrated Patch Clamp Amplifier
• Digidata 1322A 16 bit Data Acquisition System
• Newport VH-3048 OPT Vibration Isolation Workstation
• Sutter P-97 Pipette Puller
• Dedicated computer with A/D acquisition system and pCLAMP Version 9.0 software

Patch-clamp: epithelial cells in lung slices

• Vibration-free table: Micro-g TMC (Technical Manufacturing Corporation)
• Faraday cage
• McILWAIN Model TC752 Tissue Chopper
• Leica VT1000S Vibratome
• Olympus BX-50WI Fluorescent Microscope
• Olympus BX51WIF Fixed Stage Fluorescence Microscope
• Sutter MPC-385 Motorized Micromanipulator
• Axopatch 200B Integrated Patch Clamp Amplifier
• Digidata 1440A Data Acquisition System
• Newport VH-3048 OPT Vibration Isolation Workstation
• Sutter P-97 Pipette Puller
• Dedicated computer with A/D acquisition system and pCLAMP Version 9.0 software

Isolation of oocytes from Xenopus laevris, injection with cRNAs and recording of whole cell and single channel currents.

• Vibration-free table: Micro-g TMC (Technical Manufacturing Corporation).
• Two Micromanipulators: WPI
• Stereo-microscope: Nikon, SMZ645
• Voltage Clamp amplifier: TEV-200A Dagan Corporation
• Computer: Dell computer with Windows software (Microsoft)
• Interface: Digidata 1200
• Software: Pclamp 7, Axon Instrument
• Chart recorder: Kipp-Zonen

• Vibration free table: Newport Corporation
• Stereomicroscope: Nikon, SMZ645
• Micromanipulator: Newport
• Computer: Dell computer with Microsoft windows XP (Microsoft)
• Interface: Digidata 1322A
• Software: Pclamp 9, Axon Instrument
• Amplifier: Axopatch 200B, Axon instrument

Additional Equipment for pipette pulling and polishing

• Sutter Instruments Co. Model P-97 Micropipette Puller
• Micro Forge MF-80 Pipette polisher (Narishige, Japan)

High Pressure Liquid Chromatography

• Shimadzu Diode array detector: Model #: M10 A VP
• ESA CoulArray Detector: Model 5600A
• ESA autosampler with Peltier temperature control: Model 542
• Shimadzu System controller: Model #: SCL10 A VP
• Shimadzu Auto Injector: Model #: SIL10 AD VP
• Shimadzu Liquid Chromatograph: Model #: LC10 AT VP
• Shimadzu Degasser: Model #: DGV14A
• Shimadzu Column Oven: Model #: CTO10 AS VP
• Shimadzu Pump Sub Controller: Model #: FCV10 AL VP
• Dell Computer (To Control the HPLC)
• ESA CoulArrayÒ software for data analysis

FlexiVent system (SCIREQ, Montreal, Canada) suitable for measuring elastance and input resistance in small animals (10g-45g) using the forced oscillation technique. An Aeroneb is also integrated into the system, for methacholine and other nebulizations. Vital signs (heart rate, invasive blood pressure, and temperature) probes are also available for routine monitoring.

• Mouse oximeter (MouseOx) (STARR Life Sciences, Oakmont, PA), for measurement of oxygen saturation and respiratory rates non-invasively.
• Facility for exposing rodents and cells to chlorine gas
• Facility for delivering aerosolized agents via nose only exposure

Equipment available to all faculty in the Department of Anesthesiology:

• Storage Phosphor Screen and Cassettes (GE Healthcare)
• Storm 820 Imaging system (GE Healthcare)
• Leitz DMRXA2 fluorescence microscope with Simple PCI imaging software

• Zhihong Yu 
• Nilam Vetal 
• James Lambert 
• Jeannette Eagen 
• Tamas Jilling 
• Sadis Matalon 
• Stephen Doran 
• Ahmed Lazrak 
• Saurabh Aggarwal 
• Israr Ahmad
• Gloria Son