Nobel prize has groupie effect among young scientists

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Rock stars they’re not, but the Nobel prize winners in chemistry said Monday that winning the prestigious award had a “groupie effect” among young scientists.

“I liked it when I was a complete nobody and the few people that came to work with me really wanted to work on ion channels,” said Roderick MacKinnon, 47, of Rockefeller University in New York.

Co-winner Peter Agre, 54, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, agreed.

“Now I worry that people will come to me for the wrong reasons,” he said, adding that there has been a steady stream of students coming by his laboratory since the Nobel prizes were announced in October.

“The luster of this award gives them a false sense that our laboratories are a safe place for them to succeed rapidly,” he said after delivering the traditional Nobel lecture at Stockholm University. “There’s a little bit of a groupie effect.”

The two Americans share the 10 million kronor (US$1.36 million) chemistry prize for discoveries about how crucial substances get in and out of cells — work that could lead to improved drugs for such disorders as epilepsy and high blood pressure. They will receive the awards Wednesday at a ceremony in the Swedish capital.

Agre said he would donate part of his award to help the legal fees of an American scientist who was convicted last week in connection with the disappearance of plague bacteria vials from a Texas laboratory. Doctor Thomas Butler was found guilty of unauthorized export of plague samples to Tanzania, but acquitted on the most serious charges of smuggling the potentially deadly germ, as well as lying to federal agents.

Agre said the charges were unfair and resulted from “a mistake in the laboratory.”

Aside from inspiring budding scientists, Agre said there was a political aspect to the Nobel prize.

“I think government leaders listen to people who have this special prize,” he said.

MacKinnon said he did not think much about money, but said the prize would benefit the family economy.

“I give it to my wife. She pays the bills,” he said.

(kr-pyg)