Gheorghe Benga (born January 26, 1944, in Timișoara, Romania) is a Romanian physician and molecular biologist. He is professor and chairman in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology of the Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and PharmacyinCluj-Napoca, Romania, and a titular member of the Romanian Academy.
Benga did his studies in Cluj-Napoca, earning an M.D. from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in 1967, and an M.Sc. in Chemistry from Babeș-Bolyai University in 1973.[1]
In 1986, together with collaborators Octavian Popescu and Victor I. Pop, Benga showed the existence of a protein water channel in the red blood cell membrane.[2][3] Two years later, in 1988, Peter Agre independently isolated the protein and demonstrated it was a ubiquitously expressed water transport protein, naming it aquaporin.[4] In 2003 Agre would receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work.[5] Benga and his collaborators would appeal this award before the Nobel Committee, to no avail, though he would receive recognition with a Gold Medal at the Third Science Congress held in Constanța.[6][1]
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