Professor Peter Agre, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry 2003 and Director of the John Hopkins Malaria Research Centre, delivered the keynote lecture at the Irish Epithelial Physiology Group (IEPG) meeting, which took place on 21 and 22 October 2010. More ...

The meeting was co-organised by Dr Stephen Keely, Associate Director, Molecular Medicine Lab, RCSI and Professor Brian Harvey, Professor Molecular Medicine, RCSI on behalf of the Irish Epithelial Physiology Group with the aim of increasing collaboration and co-operation between Irish Principal Investigators in the field of epithelial physiology. The conference was opened by the Lord Mayor of Kilkenny, Martin Brett.

Professor Agre, who is also President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, delivered a keynote lecture entitled ‘Aquaporin Water Channels: from Atomic Structure to Malaria’ as part of the two-day conference which took place in the Newpark Hotel, Kilkenny. He won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2003 for his laboratory's 1991 discovery of the long-sought ‘channels’ that regulate and facilitate water molecule transport through cell membranes, a process essential to all living organisms.

Professor Marshall Montrose from the University of Cincinnatti also delivered a guest lecture entitled ‘Interventional imaging of the stomach defenses against acid’.

The prizes for the outstanding PhD Student and Postdoctoral Researcher presentations went Ms Ulrike Bruning and Dr Debra Higgins, both from the Conway Institute, UCD.

The conference was supported by Science Foundation Ireland, Millipore, the Physiological Society, Sigma-Aldrich, Biosciences and Sarstedt.