If you're struggling through high school chemistry, take heart. In 2003, a man who got a D in chemistry in high school won the Nobel Prize, the most prestigious award any chemist could ever receive. Peter Agre discovered aquaporins, a breakthrough that could eventually lead to a cure for diseases such as cataracts or kidney damage. His father was a college chemistry professor, but he almost failed the course in Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. He went to Augsburg College in Minneapolis, where he did well enough to get into Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He specialized in blood diseases, and years ago, he was extracting proteins from cells to find a cause of rH blood cell bursting in newborns. He found a strange protein that he couldnt identify. Each red blood cell had more than 200 of these proteins on its surface. Anyone else could have forgot about it, but Peter Agre is a curious man. He had to find out if this protein occurred anywhere else. He found huge amounts in kidneys and even higher amounts in the roots of plants. His mentor asked him if the protein could have anything to do with how water goes inside and outside of cells. He added large amounts of this protein to frogs eggs. They filled up with water and popped like popcorn. Thus, he showed that the mysterious protein caused water to enter cells at a very fast rate. He found that lack of this protein causes a terrible disease called kidney diabetes insipidus in which a person loses huge amounts of water in the urine. Peter Agre named the protein aquaporin. In the future, it could lead to a cure for many diseases in which the transport of water is not normal. Water is the most abundant component of all living organisms. Sixty percent of your body is water. Cells and tissues are remarkably different in their ability to absorb or release water. The study of aquaporins could lead to cures for kidney water defects, major blood group transfusion reactions, cataracts, a disease called renal tubular acidosis, Sjogrens syndrome, and brain swelling. Peter Agree, the kid who got a D in high school chemistry, is now a distinguished professor of biochemistry at Johns Hopkins and winner the most prestigious award any chemist could win . . . the Nobel Prize. |
