Scharenberg, assistant professor of pediatrics and adjunct assistant professor of immunology, and his lab group are interested in understanding how one of those cations, magnesium, gets into and out of cells. His lab has identified the first protein, TRPM7, that has a clear role in mediating magnesium uptake into cells. Special properties of TRPM7 are that it forms both an ion channel (a hole in the cell wall for magnesium to move through) and a protein kinase (an enzyme which modifies other cellular proteins). What this means outside of the lab is that drugs may one day be developed to alter the function of TRPM7 to selectively allow rapid magnesium uptake in cells.

Scharenberg received an M.D. in 1990 and completed a pediatrics residency at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in 1993. He served as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health and at the Division of Experimental Pathology at Beth Israel Hospital until 1998. Scharenberg was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School for two years and joined the UW Department of Pediatrics in 2000. Among his numerous awards, Scharenberg received a Pediatric Scientist Development Award in 1993 and the 2002 American Pediatric Society National Young Investigator Award.