The 2003 Nobel Chemistry Prize was awarded on Wednesday to two Americans Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced.

Agre, 54, is part of the staff at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland; and Mackinnon, 47, is part of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute of the Rockefeller University in New York.

The academy mentioned the two Americans' work on channels in cell membranes, saying the discovery is of "great importance for our understanding of many diseases."

Their contribution also opens the door to a whole series of biochemical, physiological and genetic studies of water channels in bacteria, plants and mammals, the academy added.

Agre and Mackinnon will share a 10-million-kronor (about US$1.3 million) prize.

(Xinhua News Agency October 9, 2003)