Elizabeth Marie Nolan (born 1978) is an American chemist and associate professor at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

Early life and education

Nolan was born in Niskayuna, New York. She studied at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

, where she majored in chemistry and graduated

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

in 2000. During her undergraduate studies she minored in music and worked with Robert Linck on computational chemistry. She studied the stereoelectronic effects in substituted alkanes. Nolan was a member of

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

. She was awarded a Fulbright Program Scholarship and moved to France to study siderophore-iron complexes. Nolan moved to

for her graduate studies, where she was supervised by

Stephen J. Lippard Stephen James Lippard (born October 12, 1940) is the Arthur Amos Noyes Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is considered one of the founders of bioinorganic chemistry, studying the interactions of ...

. She developed small molecule fluorescent sensors to monitor for zinc in neurobiology and mercury in

aqueous solution An aqueous solution is a solution in which the solvent is water. It is mostly shown in chemical equations by appending (aq) to the relevant chemical formula. For example, a solution of table salt, or sodium chloride (NaCl), in water would be re ...

s. Together they filed a patent for

Fluorescein Fluorescein is an organic compound and dye based on the xanthene tricyclic structural motif, formally belonging to triarylmethine dyes family. It is available as a dark orange/red powder slightly soluble in water and alcohol. It is widely used ...

-based metal sensors. Nolan was a postdoctoral scientist at the

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

, working with Christopher T. Walsh on the biosynthetic assembly of microcin E492m. Microcin E492m is an antibiotic peptide that can target Gram-negative bacteria which express siderophore transporters. She was awarded a $2.5 million

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

grant in 2010 to study

antibacterial peptides Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), also called host defence peptides (HDPs) are part of the innate immune response found among all classes of life. Fundamental differences exist between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells that may represent targets for an ...

and zinc in innate immunity. In 2011 she contributed to the book ''Letters to a Young Chemist.''

Research and career

Nolan was appointed as an assistant professor at the department of chemistry at the

in 2014. She explores the coordination chemistry of metal ions in biological systems; in particular how proteins destroy microbes by denying them metal nutrients. She looks at the peptides and metalloproteins that are involved in mammalian immune response. Her current focus is on

calprotectin Calprotectin is a complex of the mammalian proteins S100A8 and S100A9. Other names for calprotectin include MRP8-MRP14, calgranulin A and B, cystic fibrosis antigen, L1, 60BB antigen, and 27E10 antigen. The proteins exist as homodimers but preferen ...

s and how they bind metals. She used

magnetic circular dichroism Magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) is the differential absorption of left and right circularly polarized (LCP and RCP) light, induced in a sample by a strong magnetic field oriented parallel to the direction of light propagation. MCD measurements ...

to study the binding of

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

to human

. Her group look to understand how

Neuron A neuron, neurone, or nerve cell is an electrically excitable cell that communicates with other cells via specialized connections called synapses. The neuron is the main component of nervous tissue in all animals except sponges and placozoa. N ...

al cells process and removes

SOD1 Superoxide dismutase u-Znalso known as superoxide dismutase 1 or hSod1 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''SOD1'' gene, located on chromosome 21. SOD1 is one of three human superoxide dismutases. It is implicated in apoptosis, Amyo ...

point mutants. Nolan looks to design drugs to fight bacterial infections. They study how immunity peptides that are encoded by the gene clusters that biosynthesize antibiotics which use metal ion transporters protect the organisms that produce them. She proposes that hijacking the siderophore uptake pathways could allow new prevention and treatment against diseases. She worked with Manuela Raffatellu at

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

to develop a new immunisation strategy against

salmonella ''Salmonella'' is a genus of rod-shaped (bacillus) Gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The two species of ''Salmonella'' are ''Salmonella enterica'' and ''Salmonella bongori''. ''S. enterica'' is the type species and is fur ...

. They target siderophores, a molecule that

secretes to scavenge iron. Immunisation against siderophores led to the production of antibodies that reduced the growth of

and other bacteria. She is on the editorial board of ''Cell Chemical Biology''.

Patents

* 2009

-based metal sensors * 2015 Enterobactin conjugates and uses thereof * 2016 Siderophore-based immunization against gram-negative bacteria

Awards and honours

* 2010

New Innovator Award * 2011 Searle Scholar * 2014 National Science Foundation CAREER Award * 2014 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar * 2016

Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry The Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry was established in 1934. Consisting of a bronze medal and honorarium, its purpose is to stimulate fundamental research in biological chemistry by scientists not over thirty-eight years of age. The Award i ...

* 2016

School of Science Teaching Prize * 2017

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Cathol ...

Denkewalter Lecture * 2017 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nolan, Elizabeth 1978 births Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Smith College alumni American women biochemists Living people American women academics 21st-century American women scientists Chemists from New York (state) Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers