San Francisco, CA--Roderick MacKinnon, M.D., an alumnus of the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences, was one of two American scientists awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Dr. MacKinnon, a professor of Molecular Neurobiology and Biophysics at The Rockefeller University in New York, was selected as a Pew Scholar in 1992.

The research of Dr. MacKinnon (and that of Peter Agre of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore with whom he shares this year’s prize) concerns minuscule channels within cell walls that provide important information about many diseases, including those that affect the heart, kidneys and nervous system. The specific work of Dr. MacKinnon, and the focus of the research that was supported by the Pew Scholars Program, deals with those channels through which ions, electrically charged atoms or clusters of atoms, pass. These channels perform important functions regarding the body’s ability to regulate its organs and hormonal systems properly. Serious medical conditions such as heart disease and diabetes can result form these ion channels malfunctioning.

"These are discoveries that are of fundamental importance for the understanding of life processes,” said Bengt Norden, chairman of the Noble chemistry committee, “not just among humans and higher organisms, but also for bacteria and plants.”
The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences, administrated through the Center for the Health Professions at UCSF, is designed to support young investigators of outstanding promise in the basic and clinical sciences relevant to the advancement of human health. The funding of the awards is provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The award is intended to provide assured support, during their earlier years, for junior members of the faculty as they establish their laboratories. It is hoped that the assurance provided through the Program will encourage successful applicants to be more venturesome in their research and future applications for support than would otherwise be likely.

"The Pew Charitable Trusts congratulates Dr. MacKinnon on his Nobel Prize," said Rebecca Rimel, president of the Trusts. “Dr. MacKinnon's achievements reinforce our commitment to support the search for solutions to serve the public interest."

For more information about the Pew Scholars Program in Biomedical Sciences please visit: http://futurehealth.ucsf.edu/pewscholar.html

To Learn more about Roderick MacKinnon’s work please visit The Rockefeller University website at: http://www.rockefeller.edu

The mission of the UCSF Center for the Health Professions is to assist health care professionals, health professions schools, care delivery organizations and public policy makers respond to the challenges of educating and managing a health care workforce capable of improving the health and well being of people and their communities. The Center’s website is http://.futurehealth.ucsf.edu

The Pew Charitable Trusts, a national philanthropy based in Philadelphia, support nonprofit activities in the areas of conservation and the environment, culture, education, health and human services, public policy and religion. Through their grantmaking, the Trusts make strategic investments that encourage and support citizen participation in addressing critical issues and effecting social change. For more information please visit: www.pewtrusts.com