AAAS Experts & Speakers Service

Peter C. Agre

[Photograph courtesy of the Duke University School of Medicine]

Peter C. Agre
President-Elect
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Area(s) of expertise: Chemistry, malaria
Language(s) spoken: English
Contact Information:
202-326-6440
scipak@aaas.org

PIO Contact: Ginger Pinholster
202-326-6440
gpinhols@aaas.org
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Nobel Laureate Peter C. Agre is director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. He received his B.A. in chemistry from Augsburg College, and his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University.

Agre shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Roderick MacKinnon of Rockefeller University for the discovery of aquaporins, the key proteins that transport water across cell membranes. These water channel proteins are found throughout nature and responsible for numerous physiological processes in humans—including kidney concentration, as well as secretion of spinal fluid, aqueous humor, tears, sweat, and release of glycerol from fat. Aquaporins have been implicated in multiple clinical disorders—including fluid retention, bedwetting, brain edema, cataracts, heat prostration, and obesity. Water transport in lower organisms, microbes, and plants also depend upon aquaporins.

Not long after receiving the Nobel Prize, Agre began working to extend his studies of aquaporins to malaria, addressing the question of whether or not aquaporins could be exploited as a means of treating or preventing the disease. Initial results led his laboratory to focus on malaria as its primary area of study.

Agre is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, chair of the NAS Committee on Human Rights, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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