The Nobel Prize in
Chemistry for 2003 was awarded to the American scientist,
Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon because of
their decisive contribution to channels in cell membranes.
Bengt Nordén, Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said
on the press conference, Agre won the prize for his discovery of the
water channel in cell membranes and Roderick MacKinnon, for
structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels. Their
discoveries have clarified how salts (ions) and water are transported
out of and into the cells of the body, for example, the
kidneys recover water from primary urine and how the electrical signals
in our nerve cells are generated and propagated. This is very important
for our study of many diseases of, such as the kidneys,
heart, muscles and nervous system. Usually, the Nobel Prize should
be awarded to the senior scientist whose achievement would be tested for
several decades, but Agre was only 54 years old and Mackinnon, 47. Their
achievement was very new. Mackinnon’s discovery just happened 5 years
ago and Agre’s work just finished in 1988. The Sweden Press said, it’s
very rare in the history of Nobel Prize in Science. This year’s Nobel
Prizes in Chemistry, Physiology and Medicine illustrate the interdisciplinary
Research trend of contemporary science. One hundred of
years ago, people suspected the body's cells must contain specific
channels for transporting water. However, it was not until 1988 that
Peter Agre succeeded in isolating a membrane protein. Then
he realized it must be the long-sought-after water channel. The
selection Committee said, it is a decisive discovery which opened the
door to a whole series of biochemical, physiological and genetic studies
of water channels in bacteria, plants and mammals. The other type of
membrane channel is the ion channel important for the function of then
nerve system or muscle. It also can generate the electrical signal to
pass the message in nerve system. Roderick MacKinnon
surprised the whole research community when in 1998 he was able to
determine the spatial structure of a potassium channel. The selection
committee said, because of his contribution we can now “see” ions
flowing through channels that can be opened and closed by different
cellular signals. Peter Agre, born in 1949 in Northfield,
Minnesota, USA. In 1974, he got the Medical Doctor at Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA. He is the professor of
Biological Chemistry and Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA. Roderick MacKinnon,
born in 1956, grew up in Burlington outside Boston, USA. In 1982, He got
Medical Doctor at Tufts Medical School, Boston, USA. He is the professor
of Molecular Neurobiology and Biophysics at The Rockefeller University
in New York, USA. They would share equally the prize amount of SEK 10
million (about 1.3 million dollars).
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Reference from:
U.S. Body Essential
