| Citation | Distinguished for his work on the physiology of secretion, particularly of milk. Following early work (some in collabortion with the late Dr J L Linzell) on the salt galnd in birds and on tight junctions in the mammary epithelium, Peaker has made advances in knowledge of milk secretion. He has established the presence, site, role, mechanism and control of the transcellular and paracellular routes for secretion of ions, water and small molecules across the mammary epithelium and has devised ways of distinguishing whether components are secreted by the Golgi vesicle or by passage through the apical membrane. His studies on the relation between the mammary gland and reproduction showed that mastectomy affects the oestrus cycle, that the gland synthesises and secretes both oestrogens and relaxin and that it is an endocrine as well as an exocrine organ. He has isolated a hitherto unknown, highly glycosylated protein from milk which exerts inhibitory autocrine control on milk secretion and explains how milking interval regulates milk yield. Peaker has applied much of this work to dairy animals. |