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Son
of a St. Olaf College professor, Peter Agre was raised in a small Minnesota
farming community made festive by annual visits of the King of Norway. During
their summers, Agre and his brothers worked on their cousin's dairy farm,
and in winter they shoveled a lot of snow and toured the countryside on
cross-country skis. The family moved to Minneapolis where Agre attended
high school and studied chemistry at Augsburg College (BA 1970). It was
while attending medical school at Johns Hopkins (MD 1974) that Agre discovered
a love for biomedical research while working in the laboratory of the eminent
membrane biologist, Pedro Cuatrecasas. Following an Internal Medicine residency
at Case Western and a Hematology/Oncology Fellowship at UNC Chapel Hill,
Agre returned to Hopkins for a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department
of Cell Biology in the laboratory of Vann Bennett (discoverer of ankyrin
and adducin).
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joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and rose through
the ranks. He is now Professor of Biological Chemistry and Professor of
Medicine. His research group now occupies the laboratory of his former professor,
Albert Lehninger. Agre's research led to the first known membrane defects
in congenital hemolytic anemias (spherocytosis) and produced the first isolation
of the Rh blood group antigens. In the early 90's Agre's lab became well
known for discovering the aquaporin water channel proteins. Among his awards,
Agre was the inaugural Carl Gottschalk Lecturer for the American Physiological
Society (1994), a Karolinska Research Lecturer at the Nobel Forum (1997),
a national finalist for the ASCI Award (1998), and recipient of the 1999
Homer Smith Award from the American Society of Nephrology. Agre was elected
to the National Academy of Sciences in 2000, the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences in 2003, and the American Philosophical Society in 2004. Agre
shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Roderick MacKinnon of Rockefeller
University. http://www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/2003/index.html
Agre’s discovery
of the aquaporin water channels has launched a new area of biomedical
research. Water is the major component of all forms of life, and the carefully
orchestrated movements of fluids between biological compartments was long
mysterious. The aquaporins serve as cellular plumbing systems and are
involved in generation of fluids including cerebrospinal fluid, aqueous
humor, sweat, saliva, tears, bile, milk, and concentration of urine. These
pathways are involved in multiple human disease states. Aquaporins are
expressed in all living organisms, and they are essential for uptake of
water by plant roots and confer microorganisms resistance to freezing.
Agre also devotes major
efforts to medical school activities. He served Director of the Johns
Hopkins Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine. This program
is the first NIH funded program in Molecular Medicine in the U.S. and
is the largest interdepartmental graduate program at Johns Hopkins. Cellular
and Molecular Medicine graduate students perform basic research in Clinical
Departments on such problems as cancer, AIDS, and kidney disease. In addition
Agre has served as Chairman of the Young Investigators' Day Student Research
Awards Program at Johns Hopkins. He also serves on the Committee for Human
Rights of the National Academies. Agre has served as Soccer Coach and
Assistant Scoutmaster for their four children. He still retains his passion
for wilderness canoe journeys into the Canadian Outback. He plays an active
role in human rights issues as a member of the Committee for Human Rights
of the National Academies of Science.
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