EGR Peter

EGR, Peter (Agre, Peter) (p. 1949) (USA). Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2003 (with R. McKinnon).

Born January 30, 1949 in g. Nortfield (Minnesota). In 1964-1967 he studied in high school (High School Theodore Roosevelt), and then his father's footsteps Kortlenda Egra, professor of chemistry at Augsburg College, was admitted there in 1967 and graduated with a BA in chemistry in 1970.

Then he studied medicine at Johns Hopkins University (1970-1974), and there is an internship in the pharmacological laboratory at Pedro Katrekasasa (1974-1975).

In the 1975-1978 Agree - intern at University Hospital, Case West Reserve in Cleveland, received a Ph.D. practices in the medical faculty in the Department of Hematology and Oncology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1978-1980). In Chapel Hill he became an assistant (1980-1981), . but the urge to lead his alma mater in 1981, again in the Johns Hopkins University, . where he rose from an instructor (1981-1983) and assistant (1984-1988) to professor of cell biology and anatomy (1988-1993),
. From 1983 to 1990, taught courses in the pathophysiology of human.

In my research, perfectly mastered the techniques of identification, treatment and descriptions of membrane proteins, but because the whole course of scientific work has been prepared for the opening of membrane protein, aquaporin 1, which was held in 1988.

It is known that living cells are divided between a lipid bilayer membrane. Inside the cell is the membrane separating them organelles - nucleus, mitochondria and chloroplasts. Lipid bilayer is impermeable to water, ions and other polar particles. Transfer of substances into cells is carried out by membrane pumps such as Na +, K + ATPase, an open J. Skou (Nobel Laureate, 1957), through channels that are specific for different particle.

The existence of water channels was postulated as early as 19. E. Brц?cke (1843), Ostwald (Nobel laureate in chemistry, 1890) and B. Pfeffer (1877). Water channels are necessary for the regulation of cell volume and internal osmotic pressure and are required for the body to the output of urine. Water channels must be present in all organisms from bacteria to man.

Since the mid 20 in. and for the next 30 years was found, . that the water quickly penetrates the membrane pores of red blood cells (up to 109 molecules per second through a single season), . which are impermeable to protons and other ions, . but no one was able to identify water channels, . but because even the very concept of water channels has been questioned by many,
.

Egru had the good fortune of opening water channels. Since mid-1980 he began to study membrane antigens of red blood cells, and in 1988 was able to identify an unknown membrane protein CHIP28 with a molecular mass of 28 000. The following year he found that this protein is not nothing but a water channel, which has so long sought. Protein called aquaporin 1.

This was a key moment in the study of cellular water channels. Soon, only in human tissues was detected by at least 11 unique aquaporin 1, a number of them associated with the appearance of certain diseases. In the cells of plants of different aquaporin more, to 35, as was demonstrated in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

Physiological role of aquaporins can be clearly illustrated by the kidneys. They carry resorption 150-200 liters of water daily, and perform this function, as it turned out, aquaporins 1 and 2. The first of these works in the proximal part and the second in the collecting ducts. Effects of aquaporin 2 in the plasma membrane is regulated by vasopressin, and the variation of the level of aquaporin assotsiruetsya with Nephrogenic diabetes, as well as with chronic heart failure.

In 2000-2001 was installed three-dimensional structure aquaporin 1 and some other related channel proteins of bacteria. On this basis, offer explanations for the mechanism of action of this protein. Thus, the ten-odd years that have passed since the opening Egra, it was understood the properties of water channel almost at the atomic level. It is becoming increasingly clear how this works 'molecular machine'.

Later Agree received two U.S. patents on the isolation, cloning and the Effects of aquaporins 1 and 5.

Agree became Professor of biological chemistry and medicine at Johns Hopkins University in 1993 and remained in this position now. In 2001, he summarized his research in the field of aquaporins in the book "aquaporins, the current problems of membranes". Published about 200 papers (31 of them reviewed and 3 books).

In 2000, Agree was elected to the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, and in 2003 - the Academy of Arts and Sciences USA. Member, American Society of Cell Biology, Clinical Research, Nephrology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, as well as the American Physiological Society.

In 2003 Egru together with R. McKinnon awarded the Nobel Prize 'for his discoveries related to ion channels in cell membranes: for the discovery of water channels'.