Rebecca Abergel

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Rebecca Abergel
Rebecca Abergel - TEDx Paris 2016 04.jpg
Alma mater École Normale Supérieure (B.Sc.) (2002)
University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D) (2006)
Scientific career
Fields Coordination Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry
Institutions University of California, Berkeley
Doctoral advisor Ken Raymond
Website abergel.lbl.gov

Rebecca Abergel is a professor of nuclear engineering and of chemistry at University of California, Berkeley. [1] [2] Abergel is also a senior faculty scientist in the chemical sciences division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she directs the Glenn T. Seaborg Center and leads the Heavy Element Chemistry research group. [3] She is the recipient of several awards for her research in nuclear and inorganic chemistry.

Contents

Her research interests include ligand design and use of spectroscopic characterization methods to study the biological coordination chemistry and toxicity mechanisms of f-elements and inorganic isotopes, especially as applied to decontamination strategies, waste management, remediation, separation, and radiopharmaceutical development. [4]

Abergel is known for leading the development of new drug products for the treatment of populations contaminated with heavy metals and radionuclides. [5] Clinical development and commercialization of these products are now spearheaded by HOPO Therapeutics, which she co-founded. [6]

Early life and education

Abergel was born in Caracas, Venezuela and grew up in Paris, France. She attended the École Normale Supérieure of Paris for her undergraduate degree, where she studied chemistry. While an undergraduate, she received a scholarship to work in the laboratory of Prof. John Arnold at the University of California, Berkeley. [7] She remained at UC Berkeley to conduct her graduate studies, under the supervision of Prof. Ken Raymond. Her doctoral work focused on the synthesis and characterization of siderophore analogs to probe microbial iron transport systems and to develop new iron chelating agents. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] After earning her PhD in inorganic chemistry, [2] Abergel pursued postdoctoral research in the UC Berkeley Department of Chemistry and the group of Prof. Roland Strong at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. There she investigated the bacteriostatic function of the innate immune protein siderocalin in binding siderophores from pathogenic microorganisms such as Bacillus anthracis, for the development of new antibiotics. [13] [14] [15]

Independent career

Abergel began her independent career at Berkeley Lab in 2009. She joined the Nuclear Engineering Department of UC Berkeley in 2018 [16] and became the Heavy Element Chemistry Group Leader and Glenn T. Seaborg Center Director at Berkeley Lab that same year. In 2023, she joined the UC Berkeley Chemistry Department and became Associate Dean of the College of Engineering. [17] [18]

Honors

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enterobactin</span> Chemical compound

Enterobactin is a high affinity siderophore that acquires iron for microbial systems. It is primarily found in Gram-negative bacteria, such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Raymond</span> American inorganic chemist

Kenneth Norman Raymond is a bioinorganic and coordination chemist. He is Chancellor's Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, Professor of the Graduate School, the Director of the Seaborg Center in the Chemical Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the President and Chairman of Lumiphore.

Gregory S. Girolami is the William H. and Janet G. Lycan Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on the synthesis, properties, and reactivity of new inorganic, organometallic, and solid state species. Girolami has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the American Chemical Society.

Siderocalin(Scn), lipocalin-2, NGAL, 24p3 is a mammalian lipocalin-type protein that can prevent iron acquisition by pathogenic bacteria by binding siderophores, which are iron-binding chelators made by microorganisms. Iron serves as a key nutrient in host-pathogen interactions, and pathogens can acquire iron from the host organism via synthesis and release siderophores such as enterobactin. Siderocalin is a part of the mammalian defence mechanism and acts as an antibacterial agent. Crystallographic studies of Scn demonstrated that it includes a calyx, a ligand-binding domain that is lined with polar cationic groups. Central to the siderophore/siderocalin recognition mechanism are hybrid electrostatic/cation-pi interactions. To evade the host defences, pathogens evolved to produce structurally varied siderophores that would not be recognized by siderocalin, allowing the bacteria to acquire iron.

William B. Tolman an American inorganic chemist focusing on the synthesis and characterization of model bioinorganic systems, and organometallic approaches towards polymer chemistry. He has served as Editor in Chief of the ACS journal Inorganic Chemistry, and as a Senior Investigator at the NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers. Tolman is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society.

Lawrence Que Jr. is a chemist who specializes in bioinorganic chemistry and is a Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He received the 2017 American Chemical Society (ACS) Award in Inorganic Chemistry for his contributions to the field., and the 2008 ACS Alfred Bader Award in Bioinorganic Chemistry.

T. Don Tilley is a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.

Sarah Elizabeth Reisman is a Chemistry Professor at the California Institute of Technology. She received the (2013) Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award and the (2014) Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award for Organic Synthesis. Her research focuses on the total synthesis of complex natural products.

Jenny Yue-fon Yang is an American chemist. She is a Professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine where she leads a research group focused on inorganic chemistry, catalysis, and solar fuels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vy Maria Dong</span> American chemist

Vy Maria Dong is a Vietnamese-American Chancellor's Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Dong works on enantioselective catalysis and natural product synthesis. She received the Royal Society of Chemistry's Merck, Sharp & Dohme Award in 2020, the American Chemical Society's Elias James Corey Award in 2019, and the UCI's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2018.

Elizabeth Marie Nolan is an American chemist and associate professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothea Fiedler</span> German chemical biologist

Dorothea Fiedler is a chemical biologist and also the first female director of the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie in Berlin, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maksym Kovalenko</span> Ukrainian chemist and academic

Maksym V. Kovalenko is a full professor of inorganic chemistry and the head of the Functional Inorganic Materials group at ETH Zurich. A part of the research activities of the group are conducted at Empa (Dübendorf). He is working in the fields of solid-state chemistry, quantum dots and other nanomaterials, surface chemistry, self-assembly, optical spectroscopy, optoelectronics and energy storage.

Julia A. Kovacs is an American chemist specializing in bioinorganic chemistry. She is professor of chemistry at the University of Washington. Her research involves synthesizing small-molecule mimics of the active sites of metalloproteins, in order to investigate how cysteinates influence the function of non-heme iron enzymes, and the mechanism of the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy Lee Queen</span> American chemist and material scientist

Wendy Lee Queen is an American chemist and material scientist. Her research interest focus on development design and production of hybrid organic/inorganic materials at the intersection of chemistry, chemical engineering and material sciences. As of 2020 she is a tenure-track assistant professor at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, where she directs the Laboratory for Functional Inorganic Materials.

R. David Britt is the Winston Ko Chair and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Davis. Britt uses electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy to study metalloenzymes and enzymes containing organic radicals in their active sites. Britt is the recipient of multiple awards for his research, including the Bioinorganic Chemistry Award in 2019 and the Bruker Prize in 2015 from the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has received a Gold Medal from the International EPR Society (2014), and the Zavoisky Award from the Kazan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2018). He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Connie C. Lu is a Taiwanese-American inorganic chemist and a professor of chemistry at the University of Bonn. She was previously a professor of chemistry at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Lu's research focuses on the synthesis of novel bimetallic coordination complexes, as well as metal-organic frameworks. These molecules and materials are investigated for the catalytic conversion of small molecules like as N2 and CO2 into value-added chemicals like ammonia and methanol. Lu is the recipient of multiple awards for her research, including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the Sloan Research Fellowship in 2013, and an Early Career Award from the University of Minnesota's Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment in 2010.

Frances Ann Walker was an American chemist known for her work on heme protein chemistry. She was an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society.

Suzanne Cathleen Bart an American chemist who is a professor of inorganic chemistry at Purdue University. Her group's research focuses on actinide organometallic chemistry, and especially the characterization of low-valent organouranium complexes, actinide complexes with redox-active ligands, and discovery of new reactions that utilize these compounds. Bart's research has applications in the development of carbon-neutral fuel sources and the remediation of polluted sites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petrobactin</span> Chemical compound

Petrobactin is a bis-catechol siderophore found in M. hydrocarbonoclasticus, A. macleodii, and the anthrax-producing B. anthracis. Like other siderophores petrobactin is a highly specific iron(III) transport ligand, contributing to the marine microbial uptake of environmental iron.

References

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  8. Abergel, Rebecca J.; Raymond, Kenneth N. (2006-05-01). "Synthesis and Thermodynamic Evaluation of Mixed Hexadentate Linear Iron Chelators Containing Hydroxypyridinone and Terephthalamide Units1". Inorganic Chemistry. 45 (9): 3622–3631. doi:10.1021/ic052111a. ISSN   0020-1669. PMC   3685440 . PMID   16634594.
  9. Abergel, Rebecca J.; Warner, Jeffrey A.; Shuh, David K.; Raymond, Kenneth N. (2006-07-01). "Enterobactin Protonation and Iron Release: Structural Characterization of the Salicylate Coordination Shift in Ferric Enterobactin1". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 128 (27): 8920–8931. doi:10.1021/ja062046j. ISSN   0002-7863. PMC   3188320 . PMID   16819888.
  10. Abergel, Rebecca J.; Raymond, Kenneth N. (2008-02-01). "Terephthalamide-containing ligands: fast removal of iron from transferrin". Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry. 13 (2): 229–240. doi:10.1007/s00775-007-0314-y. ISSN   1432-1327. PMID   17990009. S2CID   20706644.
  11. Abergel, Rebecca J.; Zawadzka, Anna M.; Raymond, Kenneth N. (2008-02-01). "Petrobactin-Mediated Iron Transport in Pathogenic Bacteria: Coordination Chemistry of an Unusual 3,4-Catecholate/Citrate Siderophore". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 130 (7): 2124–2125. doi:10.1021/ja077202g. ISSN   0002-7863. PMID   18220393.
  12. Abergel, Rebecca J.; Zawadzka, Anna M.; Hoette, Trisha M.; Raymond, Kenneth N. (2009-09-09). "Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Trilactone Siderophores: Where Chiral Recognition Occurs in Enterobactin and Bacillibactin Iron Transport". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 131 (35): 12682–12692. doi:10.1021/ja903051q. ISSN   0002-7863. PMC   2782669 . PMID   19673474.
  13. Abergel, Rebecca J.; Moore, Evan G.; Strong, Roland K.; Raymond, Kenneth N. (2006-08-01). "Microbial Evasion of the Immune System: Structural Modifications of Enterobactin Impair Siderocalin Recognition". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 128 (34): 10998–10999. doi:10.1021/ja062476+. ISSN   0002-7863. PMC   3188317 . PMID   16925397.
  14. Abergel, Rebecca J.; Wilson, Melissa K.; Arceneaux, Jean E. L.; Hoette, Trisha M.; Strong, Roland K.; Byers, B. Rowe; Raymond, Kenneth N. (2006-12-05). "Anthrax pathogen evades the mammalian immune system through stealth siderophore production". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (49): 18499–18503. Bibcode:2006PNAS..10318499A. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0607055103 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   1693691 . PMID   17132740.
  15. Abergel, Rebecca J.; Clifton, Matthew C.; Pizarro, Juan C.; Warner, Jeffrey A.; Shuh, David K.; Strong, Roland K.; Raymond, Kenneth N. (2008-08-27). "The Siderocalin/Enterobactin Interaction: A Link between Mammalian Immunity and Bacterial Iron Transport1". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 130 (34): 11524–11534. doi:10.1021/ja803524w. ISSN   0002-7863. PMC   3188318 . PMID   18680288.
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