Elizabeth C. Theil
 | This article is an autobiography or has been extensively edited by the subject or by someone connected to the subject. (November 2015) |
Elizabeth C. Theil is an American biochemist who worked on iron biology. She became the first woman to be appointed to a chaired professorship at North Carolina State University, in 1988, and in the same year she also received the Oliver Max Gardner Award of the University of North Carolina.[1]
Theil earned her B.A. from Cornell University in 1957 and her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1962. She joined the NCSU faculty in 1971, and moved to the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute in 1998. Since 2004 she has also held an adjoint professorship at the University of California, Berkeley.[2]
Her group discovered that iron directly binds ferritin mRNA to regulate ferritin protein biosynthesis[1], that iron enters ferritin protein though ion channels and pores similar to those in cell membranes, and that ferritin iron abundant in legumes can be absorbed intact, with the potential to ameliorate iron deficiency anemia, a disease identified 500 years ago and impacting 30% of the world’s population in 2015.[3]
Publications
- Fe2+ binds iron responsive element-RNA, selectively changing protein-binding affinities and regulating mRNA repression and activation.Ma J, Haldar S, Khan MA, Sharma SD, Merrick WC, Theil EC, Goss DJ.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 May 29;109(22):8417-22. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1120045109. Epub 2012 May 14.PMID 22586079
- Fe(2+) substrate transport through ferritin protein cage ion channels influences enzyme activity and biomineralization.Behera RK, Torres R, Tosha T, Bradley JM, Goulding CW, Theil EC.J Biol Inorg Chem. 2015 Sep;20(6):957-69. doi: 10.1007/s00775-015-1279-x. Epub 2015 Jul 23. PMID 26202907 ;2.Ferritin protein nanocage ion channels: gating by N-terminal extensions.Tosha T, Behera RK, Ng HL, Bhattasali O, Alber T, Theil EC.J Biol Chem. 2012 Apr 13;287(16):13016-25. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M111.332734. Epub 2012 Feb 23. PMID 22362775
- Iron homeostasis and nutritional iron deficiency.Theil EC.J Nutr. 2011 Apr 1;141(4):724S-728S. doi: 10.3945/jn.110.127639. Epub 2011 Feb 23. Review.PMID 21346101.
References
- ^ Celebrating 100 Years of Women at NC State University: 1980–1989, NCSU Library, retrieved 2015-11-07.
- ^ Curriculum vitae: Elizabeth C. Theil (PDF), Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, retrieved 2015-11-07.
- ^ "Molecular BioIron". Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute. Retrieved 2015-11-21.