'''Roderick MacKinnon''' (born 19 February 1956) is a professor of Molecular Neurobiology and [[Biophysics]] at [[Rockefeller University]] who won the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] together with [[Peter Agre]] in 2003 for his work on the structure and operation of [[ion channel]]s.<ref name="bnl">{{cite news|url=http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2003/bnlip100803.htm|title=2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded to Researcher Roderick MacKinnon|date=October 8, 2003|publisher=Brookhaven National Labs|accessdate=11 February 2010}}</ref><ref name="rock">{{cite web|url=https://www.rockefeller.edu/news/3783-nobel-prize-honors-rockefeller-university-scientist-roderick-mackinnon-for-revealing-process-of-electrical-signaling-in-humans-and-other-living-organisms/|title=Nobel Prize honors Rockefeller University scientist Roderick MacKinnon for revealing process of electrical signaling in humans and other living organisms|date=October 8, 2003|publisher=The Rockefeller University|accessdate=20 April 2018}}</ref><ref name="pmid11385491">{{cite journal |author=Birmingham K |title=Rod MacKinnon |journal=Nat. Med. |volume=7 |issue=6 |pages=648 |date=June 2001 |pmid=11385491 |doi=10.1038/89005 }}</ref>
==Scientific contributions==
Potassium channels demonstrate a seemingly counterintuitive activity: they permit the passage of potassium ions, whereas they do not allow the passage of the much smaller [[sodium]] ions. Before MacKinnon's work, the detailed molecular architecture of potassium channels and the exact means by which they conduct ions remained speculative. In 1998, despite barriers to the [[structural biology|structural]] study of [[integral membrane protein]]s that had thwarted most attempts for decades, MacKinnon and colleagues determined the three-dimensional molecular structure of a potassium channel from an actinobacteria, ''Streptomyces lividans'', utilizing [[X-ray crystallography]]. With this structure and other biochemical experiments, MacKinnon and colleagues were able to explain the exact mechanism by which [[Potassium channel#Selectivity filter|potassium channel selectivity]] occurs.<ref name="pmid9525854">{{cite journal |vauthors=MacKinnon R, Cohen SL, Kuo A, Lee A, Chait BT |title=Structural conservation in prokaryotic and eukaryotic potassium channels |journal=Science |volume=280 |issue=5360 |pages=106–9 |date=April 1998 |pmid=9525854 |doi=10.1126/science.280.5360.106 |url=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=9525854|bibcode = 1998Sci...280..106M }}</ref><ref name="pmid9525859">{{cite journal |vauthors=Doyle DA, Morais Cabral J, Pfuetzner RA, etal |title=The structure of the potassium channel: molecular basis of K+ conduction and selectivity |journal=Science |volume=280 |issue=5360 |pages=69–77 |date=April 1998 |pmid=9525859 |doi=10.1126/science.280.5360.69 |url=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=9525859 |bibcode=1998Sci...280...69D}}</ref>
His prize-winning research was conducted primarily at the [[Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source]] (CHESS) of [[Cornell University]], and at the [[National Synchrotron Light Source]] (NSLS) of [[Brookhaven National Laboratory]].<ref name="bnlnobel">{{cite web|url=http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/nobel/nobel_03.asp|title=The Chemistry of the Cell|publisher=Brookhaven National Lab|accessdate=13 March 2010}}</ref>
In 2007 he became a foreign member of the [[Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.knaw.nl/en/members/foreign-members/7414 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213193939/https://www.knaw.nl/en/members/foreign-members/7414 |title=R. MacKinnon |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |date= |archive-date=13 February 2016 |accessdate=13 February 2016}}</ref>
