The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2003 awarded for discoveries concerning molecular channels in cell membranes
Dijkstra, C.D.; Agre, P.; MacKinnon, R.
Nederlands tijdschrift voor geneeskunde 147(52): 2570-2572
2003
ISSN/ISBN: 0028-2162 PMID: 14723023 Document Number: 562316
About 70% of the human body consists of salt water. The Nobel Prize 2003 in Chemistry rewards Peter Agre for the discovery of water channels and Roderick MacKinnon for structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels. Their studies have demonstrated how ions and water are transported through cell membranes. This transport is essential for the regulation of size and osmotic pressure in cells and organelles and it plays a major role in salt and water homoeostasis and in the generation of electrical signals in nerve cells. Agre succeeded in isolating a membrane protein which later studies revealed to be a long-postulated water channel, MacKinnon succeeded in determining the spatial structure of a potassium channel.