Editing Roderick MacKinnon (section)

==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.{{verification needed|date=May 2025}}

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 actinobacterium, ''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 |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 |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|access-date=13 March 2010}}</ref>

MacKinnon was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 2005.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Roderick+MacKinnon&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-05-28|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</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 |archive-date=13 February 2016 |access-date=13 February 2016}}</ref>