Poignant

Today's lecture discussed the collecting duct in the kidneys. One of the important channels here is the aquaporin. Last year, I met one of the people who discovered the aquaporin, Dr. Peter Agre. He (along with Roderick MacKinnon) won the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this discovery. On a side note, I remember him telling me he got a D in his first chemistry class. How things change. He is currently the director of the Medical Scientist Training Program at Duke University.

When I went to Duke for MSTP revisit, I met Dr. Agre. His warm, humble, and welcoming personality really attracted me to Duke's program. He seems like an excellent mentor. In any case, the lecture today on aquaporins reminded me of that experience. I chatted with the Nobel Prize winner who discovered these molecules, now familiar to every biology and medical student. I think about my discussions with him, which had to do with where I was from, what I was interested in, what I thought of the South. I think about his presentation on how he discovered aquaporins (completely serendipitous). I think about the time he called my cell phone while I was paying for dinner at Subway. One of the hardest things I've had to do was to decline Duke MSTP to come to UCSF.

It's weird. I don't wish I was at Duke, but perhaps there is some slight measure of regret, exacerbated by this encounter with a molecule that was first identified by a guy I met and liked.
I am again inspired to do research for searching's sake. There are so many amazing, brilliant, and inspiring people around me.