- Title: USA: RODERICK MAcKINNON AND PETER AGRE WITH NOBEL PRIZE FOR CHEMISTRY
- Date: 10th October 2003
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER08, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY; MV RODERICK MACKINNON WALKING AND SMILING 0.12 2. HAS MACKINNON RECEIVING STANDING OVATION 0.21 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MACKINNON SAYING "I said, it must be a mistake, I mean, how do you know and he said he saw it on a web page. That's what he said.So I aside, I'll go check. So I hung up, because I only have a modem, so plugged the laptop in and logged on and went to Google, and I searched on Nobel Prize." 0.48 4. HAS AUDIENCE AT MACKINNON CONFERENCE 0.51 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MACKINNON SAYING "It would be akin to taking a computer apart and discovering the chip, or the little element in the wafer of the chip, and understanding how it works." 1.01 6. HAS MACKINNON AT CONFERENCE 1.05 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MACKINNON SAYING "Well, I realized after this morning when nobody could get a hold of me to let me know what had happened, I realized I better buy a cell phone. But also I'm seriously looking at a nice sea kayak." 1.33 8. MV /SCU MACKINNON AT WORK IN HIS LABORATORY (3 SHOTS) 1.49 BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES ( OCTOBER 8, 2003) (REUTERS) 9. LAS TILT DOWN EXTERIOR OF JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY; MV NOBEL PRIZE WINNER FOR CHEMISTRY PETER AGRE; SLV AUDITORIUM (3 SHOTS) 2.12 10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) AGRE SAYING "I think every scientist in his or her own quiet moments thinks that gee, you know something special like this might occur. In this case, it did occur and no I didn't have a plan that at age 16, I will get a driver's license and at age 21, I will graduate from college and get married, win the Nobel prize, pay taxes and die. It just happened and if you see me trembling, there is an (indestinct) discharge that I just can't overcome. I am kind of excited frankly. Even Norwegians get excited." 2.55 11. SLV AUDITORIUM; AUDIENCE STANDS UP AND APPLAUDS 3.12 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 25th October 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BALTIMORE, MARYLAND/NEW YORK, NEWYORK, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA6RSDPAILKXBBJS19J1FLSLOAO
- Story Text: Roderick MacKinnon and Peter Agre win Nobel prize
for chemistry, a subject Agre struggled with in high school.
U.S. scientist Roderick MacKinnon, along with
scientist Peter Agre, won this year's Nobel chemistry prize
for studies of tiny channels in cell membranes.
MacKinnon, who works at Howard Hughes Medical Institute
at Rockefeller University, addressed the university on
Wednesday (October 8) regarding his newly won prize.
MacKinnon first learned of his good fortune after a
phone call from his assistant early this morning.
He admitted that he did not take the news too
seriously. "I said, it must be a mistake, I mean, how do
you know, and he said he saw it on a web page. That's what
he said. So I aside, I'll go check. So I hung up, because
I only have a modem, so plugged the laptop in and logged
on, and went to Google, and I searched on Nobel Prize," he
said.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, who hands out the
prestigious awards, said that MacKinnon and Agre's
discoveries of how salts and water are transported in and
out of human cells was of "great importance for our
understanding of many diseases."
A biophysicist and self-taught x-ray crystallographer,
MacKinnon explained his findings in laymen's terms. "It
would be akin to taking a computer apart and discovering
the chip, or the little element in the wafer of the chip,
and understanding how it works," he said
MacKinnon's computer chip was the ion channel, which are
membrane-spanning proteins that form a pathway for the flow
of inorganic ions across cell membranes.
Along with the prestige of the prize comes a monetary
award as well, 10 million crown, or roughly $1.3 million.
MacKinnon already has some plans for his new income.
"Well, I realized after this morning when nobody could
get a hold of me to let me know what had happened, I
realized I better buy a cell phone. But also I'm seriously
looking at a nice sea kayak," he said.
Agre, 54, who will share the $1.3 million US dollars
Nobel prize with MacKinnon
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the
discoveries are critical to science's understanding of the
human body, which is about 70 percent salt water and
diseases of the kidneys, heart, muscles and nerves.
Agre's contribution specifically has led to an entire
series of biochemical, physiological and genetic studies of
water channels in bacteria, plants and mammals.
Agre and his wife Mary have four children, three in
college, and he said he will likely spend much of his
winnings on education costs.
Agre said that winning the Nobel prize was not part of
any grand plan.
"I think every scientist in his or her own quiet
moments thinks that gee, you know something special like
this might occur. In this case, it did occur and no I
didn't have a plan that at age 16, I will get a driver's
license and at age 21, I will graduate from college and get
married, win the Nobel prize, pay taxes and die. It just
happened."
Agre described himself as a D-student in high school
chemistry who was voted the most likely to succeed in his
class.
He received his medical degree in 1974 from the Hopkins
medical school, where he is professor of biological
chemistry and medicine. He has been teaching at the school
since 1984.
Agre, who said he would spend Wednesday (October 8,
2003) evening walking the dog and washing the dishes,
earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry at Augsburg College
in Minneapolis in 1970 and completed his internship at Case
Western Reserve. He arrived at Hopkins as a research
associate in 1981 from Wellcome Labs in North Carolina,
where he was a senior clinical research scientist.
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