Hopkins colleagues, old and new, feted Peter Agre on February 24 at a reception to welcome the Nobel Prize-winning biochemist as the new director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute.
Agre, MD, who spent three decades at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine before becoming vice chancellor for science and technology at Duke University Medical Center in 2005, took over the Institute on January 1. As director, he oversees 19 Hopkins faculty members who concentrate on advancing basic science to develop new methods in malaria prevention and treatment.
“We needed a person to inspire young faculty—and old faculty—to provide scientific leadership and to provide the visibility we think is appropriate for this Institute,” said Diane Griffin, MD, PhD, founding director of the Institute and chair of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Bloomberg School Dean Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH, added, “His passion for the health of the human race is palpable. The attraction of working on a disease that kills more than one million people a year—that’s what got him here.”
