Nobel Laureate to present the 2013 Daouk Visiting Scientist Lecture at Syracuse University
Peter Agre of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health won the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Nobel Laureate Peter Agre, University Professor and director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, Bloomberg School of Health, will present the 2013 Ghaleb ’79 and Rima Daouk Visiting Scientist Lecture at Syracuse University.
Agre will present “Opening Doors Worldwide through Medical Science” at 4 p.m. Monday, April 29 in SU’s Life Sciences Complex Auditorium, Room 001; and a seminar, “Aquaporin Water Channels: From Atomic Structure to Malaria” at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 30 in Slocum Hall Auditorium, Room 214. Both presentations are free and open to the public. Parking is available in SU’s paid lots.
The lectures are hosted by the Department of Biology in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences and are made possible by a generous endowment from Ghaleb ’79 and Rima Daouk, who reside in Massachusetts.
“We are very excited to host Dr. Agre’s visit,” says Ramesh Raina, chair of the Department of Biology. “Dr. Agre is an outstanding scientist and a strong advocate for science. His seminal research on aquaporins has provided a better understanding of many human diseases. We are looking forward to his exciting lectures. “
A native Minnesotan, Agre shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Roderick MacKinnon “for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes.” He studied chemistry at Augsburg College (B.A. 1970) and medicine at Johns Hopkins (M.D. 1974). Following an Internal Medicine Residency at Case Western Reserve University Hospital of Cleveland and a Hematology-Oncology Fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Agre joined the faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where his laboratory became widely recognized for discovering the aquaporins. Aquaporins is family of water channel proteins found throughout nature that are responsible for numerous physiological processes as well as multiple clinical disorders.
After serving as Vice Chancellor at Duke Medical Center, Agre joined the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2008, where he is University Professor and Director of the Malaria Research Institute and Program Director of the NIH International Center of Excellence in Malaria Research for Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Agre is a member of a number of national and international organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He is past-Chair and member of the Committee on Human Rights of the National Academies. From 2009-11, Agre served as President and Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and led scientific diplomacy visits to Cuba, Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea), and Myanmar (Burma).
Agre has been widely recognized for his lifelong accomplishments. His many honors include the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America, 16 honorary doctorates from universities around the world and an appointment as Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit by King Harald V. He received the 1999 Homer Smith Award from the American Society of Nephrology and the 2005 Karl Landsteiner Award from the American Association of Blood Banks. Agre and his wife Mary, a teacher, have been married 36 years and have four grown children.
Agre will present “Opening Doors Worldwide through Medical Science” at 4 p.m. Monday, April 29 in SU’s Life Sciences Complex Auditorium, Room 001; and a seminar, “Aquaporin Water Channels: From Atomic Structure to Malaria” at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 30 in Slocum Hall Auditorium, Room 214. Both presentations are free and open to the public. Parking is available in SU’s paid lots.
The lectures are hosted by the Department of Biology in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences and are made possible by a generous endowment from Ghaleb ’79 and Rima Daouk, who reside in Massachusetts.
“We are very excited to host Dr. Agre’s visit,” says Ramesh Raina, chair of the Department of Biology. “Dr. Agre is an outstanding scientist and a strong advocate for science. His seminal research on aquaporins has provided a better understanding of many human diseases. We are looking forward to his exciting lectures. “
A native Minnesotan, Agre shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Roderick MacKinnon “for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes.” He studied chemistry at Augsburg College (B.A. 1970) and medicine at Johns Hopkins (M.D. 1974). Following an Internal Medicine Residency at Case Western Reserve University Hospital of Cleveland and a Hematology-Oncology Fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Agre joined the faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where his laboratory became widely recognized for discovering the aquaporins. Aquaporins is family of water channel proteins found throughout nature that are responsible for numerous physiological processes as well as multiple clinical disorders.
After serving as Vice Chancellor at Duke Medical Center, Agre joined the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2008, where he is University Professor and Director of the Malaria Research Institute and Program Director of the NIH International Center of Excellence in Malaria Research for Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Agre is a member of a number of national and international organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He is past-Chair and member of the Committee on Human Rights of the National Academies. From 2009-11, Agre served as President and Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and led scientific diplomacy visits to Cuba, Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea), and Myanmar (Burma).
Agre has been widely recognized for his lifelong accomplishments. His many honors include the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America, 16 honorary doctorates from universities around the world and an appointment as Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit by King Harald V. He received the 1999 Homer Smith Award from the American Society of Nephrology and the 2005 Karl Landsteiner Award from the American Association of Blood Banks. Agre and his wife Mary, a teacher, have been married 36 years and have four grown children.
About Ghaleb Daouk ’79 and Rima Kaddurah-Daouk
Ghaleb Daouk, ’79 is a pediatric nephrology consultant at Boston Children’s Hospital and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. After graduating from SU’s College of Arts and Sciences magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in biology, Daouk earned his MD degree from the American University of Beirut and a master’s degree in management of technology from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He completed clinical specialty training in pediatrics and nephrology at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital.
As a post-doctoral research fellow of the American Heart Association at MIT, he cloned the gene for the brain creatine kinase. The discovery lead him to co-found, with his wife Rima Kaddurah-Daouk, the biotechnology company Avicena, currently located in Palo Alto, California. Daouk is an active member of The College’s Board of Visitors and chair of the Biology Alumni Board. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Pediatrics and a member of several medical societies. He is an amateur flutist, and active in a wide-range of philanthropic activities.
Rima Kaddurah-Daouk is an associate professor at Duke University Medical Center. She earned a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry at the American University of Beirut with post-doctoral training in molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins where she worked with Nobel Laureate Hamilton Smith; the Massachusetts General Hospital; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The first 10 years of her research career focused on energy impairment in neurodegenerative disease discoveries that lead to development of creatine as neuroprotective agent for the treatment of Huntington and Parkinson disease.
Kaddurah-Daouk has been a seminal force in the development and evolution of the metabolomics field. She co-founded the Metabolomics Society, served as its founding president and for over four years grew a metabolomics community to more than 500 scientists who meet annually to share findings and define future directions in the field. She also co-founded a leading biotechology company devoted to metabolomics applications in the medical field. Five years ago with funding from NIH she established the Pharmacometabolomics Research Network for applications of metabolomics in personalized medicine. She leads a program at Duke for mapping biochemical underpinnings in neuropsychiatric disease and is an inventor on over sixty patents and patent applications.
Ghaleb Daouk, ’79 is a pediatric nephrology consultant at Boston Children’s Hospital and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. After graduating from SU’s College of Arts and Sciences magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in biology, Daouk earned his MD degree from the American University of Beirut and a master’s degree in management of technology from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He completed clinical specialty training in pediatrics and nephrology at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital.
As a post-doctoral research fellow of the American Heart Association at MIT, he cloned the gene for the brain creatine kinase. The discovery lead him to co-found, with his wife Rima Kaddurah-Daouk, the biotechnology company Avicena, currently located in Palo Alto, California. Daouk is an active member of The College’s Board of Visitors and chair of the Biology Alumni Board. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Pediatrics and a member of several medical societies. He is an amateur flutist, and active in a wide-range of philanthropic activities.
Rima Kaddurah-Daouk is an associate professor at Duke University Medical Center. She earned a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry at the American University of Beirut with post-doctoral training in molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins where she worked with Nobel Laureate Hamilton Smith; the Massachusetts General Hospital; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The first 10 years of her research career focused on energy impairment in neurodegenerative disease discoveries that lead to development of creatine as neuroprotective agent for the treatment of Huntington and Parkinson disease.
Kaddurah-Daouk has been a seminal force in the development and evolution of the metabolomics field. She co-founded the Metabolomics Society, served as its founding president and for over four years grew a metabolomics community to more than 500 scientists who meet annually to share findings and define future directions in the field. She also co-founded a leading biotechology company devoted to metabolomics applications in the medical field. Five years ago with funding from NIH she established the Pharmacometabolomics Research Network for applications of metabolomics in personalized medicine. She leads a program at Duke for mapping biochemical underpinnings in neuropsychiatric disease and is an inventor on over sixty patents and patent applications.
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