Alice Vrielink
Biologist
Alice Vrielink is a structural biologist and Professor of Structural Biology in the School of Molecular Sciences at the University of Western Australia . She is known for her work determining the structures of macromolecules such as enzymes and nucleic acids.
Education
Vrielink earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Masters of Science in Physical Chemistry at the University of Calgary in Canada.[ 2] For her master's research she worked on ligands of angiotensin , a hormone involved in regulating blood pressure.[ 3] She received a PhD in 1989 from the University of London where she worked on the structure of cholesterol oxidase .[ 4] She also has a Diploma in Crystallography from the Imperial College of Science and Technology.[ 2]
Career
Vrielink was an Assistant and Associate Professor at McGill University in Canada from 1994 to 2001.[ 2] From 2000 until 2007 she served as a Research Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz and then joined the faculty at University of Western Australia as Professor of Structural Biology in 2007.[ 2]
Vrielink was a member of the 2014 National Committee on Crystallography[ 5] She is a past president of the Society of Crystallographers of Australia and New Zealand (SCANZ).[ 6]
Research
Vrielink conducts research in protein biochemistry and crystallography with a special focus on understanding the structural determinants governing enzyme chemistry.[ 7] Vrielink's early research centered on the three-dimensional structure of the enzyme cholesterol oxidase first in Brevibacterium [ 8] [ 9] and then in Streptomyces .[ 10]
She has been involved in projects that have established the structure of compounds including L-amino-acid oxidase ,[ 11] prions,[ 12] and snake venom.[ 13] In 2017, she mapped the molecular structure of EptA,[ 14] a protein that shields superbugs from antibiotics. This work has been covered by the BBC,[ 15] ABC,[ 16] Times Higher Education,[ 17] The West Australian,[ 18] and Particle.[ 19] Subsequent work on EptA has revealed why it may be a good target for drug development.[ 20] [ 21]
Selected publications
Vrielink, A.; Rüger, W.; Driessen, H.P.; Freemont, P.S. (1 August 1994). "Crystal structure of the DNA modifying enzyme beta-glucosyltransferase in the presence and absence of the substrate uridine diphosphoglucose" . The EMBO Journal . 13 (15): 3413–3422. doi :10.1002/j.1460-2075.1994.tb06646.x . ISSN 0261-4189 . PMC 395243 . PMID 8062817 .
Vrielink, Alice; Lloyd, Lesley F; Blow, David M (5 June 1991). "Crystal structure of cholesterol oxidase from Brevibacterium sterolicum refined at 1.8 Å resolution" . Journal of Molecular Biology . 219 (3): 533–554. doi :10.1016/0022-2836(91)90192-9 . ISSN 0022-2836 . PMID 2051487 .
Pawelek, P. D.; Cheah, J.; Coulombe, R.; Macheroux, P.; Ghisla, S.; Vrielink, A. (15 August 2000). "The structure of L-amino acid oxidase reveals the substrate trajectory into an enantiomerically conserved active site" . The EMBO Journal . 19 (16): 4204–4215. doi :10.1093/emboj/19.16.4204 . ISSN 0261-4189 . PMC 302035 . PMID 10944103 .
Burns, Colin S.; Aronoff-Spencer, Eliah; Dunham, Christine M.; Lario, Paula; Avdievich, Nikolai I.; Antholine, William E.; Olmstead, Marilyn M.; Vrielink, Alice; Gerfen, Gary J.; Peisach, Jack; Scott, William G. (1 March 2002). "Molecular Features of the Copper Binding Sites in the Octarepeat Domain of the Prion Protein" . Biochemistry . 41 (12): 3991–4001. doi :10.1021/bi011922x . ISSN 0006-2960 . PMC 2905306 . PMID 11900542 .
References
^ Vrielink, Alice (3 July 2014). "David Blow (1931-2004) - A Remberance" (PDF) . American Crystallographic Association . Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 July 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2021 .
^ a b c d "Researcher Profile: Professor Alice Vrielink" . UWA Research Repository .
^ Vrielink, Alice (1986). Structural and conformational energy studies of ligands of angiotensin converting enzyme and thermolysin (Thesis). Ottawa: National Library of Canada. OCLC 16710356 .
^ Vrielink, Alice; University of London (1989). The crystal structure determination of cholesterol oxidase . hdl :10044/1/47699 . OCLC 1063590654 .
^ "Triennial Congress and General Assembly" . Australian Academy of Science newsletter.
^ Vrielink, Alice (2016). "From the President" (PDF) . Scanz Newsletter . Retrieved 7 February 2018 .
^ Ducy, Liam. "UWA celebrates Australian link in scientific breakthrough" . WAToday , August 20, 2014.
^ Li, Jiayao; Vrielink, Alice; Brick, Peter; Blow, David M. (26 January 1993). "Crystal structure of cholesterol oxidase complexed with a steroid substrate: Implications for flavin adenine dinucleotide dependent alcohol oxidases" . Biochemistry . 32 (43): 11507–11515. doi :10.1021/bi00094a006 . ISSN 0006-2960 . PMID 8218217 .
^ Vrielink, Alice; Lloyd, Lesley F; Blow, David M (5 June 1991). "Crystal structure of cholesterol oxidase from Brevibacterium sterolicum refined at 1.8 Å resolution" . Journal of Molecular Biology . 219 (3): 533–554. doi :10.1016/0022-2836(91)90192-9 . ISSN 0022-2836 . PMID 2051487 .
^ Yue, Q. Kimberley; Kass, Ignatius J.; Sampson, Nicole S.; Vrielink, Alice (1 April 1999). "Crystal Structure Determination of Cholesterol Oxidase from Streptomyces and Structural Characterization of Key Active Site Mutants" . Biochemistry . 38 (14): 4277–4286. doi :10.1021/bi982497j . ISSN 0006-2960 . PMID 10194345 .
^ Pawelek, P. D. (15 August 2000). "The structure of L-amino acid oxidase reveals the substrate trajectory into an enantiomerically conserved active site" . The EMBO Journal . 19 (16): 4204–4215. doi :10.1093/emboj/19.16.4204 . PMC 302035 . PMID 10944103 .
^ Burns, Colin S.; Aronoff-Spencer, Eliah; Dunham, Christine M.; Lario, Paula; Avdievich, Nikolai I.; Antholine, William E.; Olmstead, Marilyn M.; Vrielink, Alice; Gerfen, Gary J.; Peisach, Jack; Scott, William G. (1 March 2002). "Molecular Features of the Copper Binding Sites in the Octarepeat Domain of the Prion Protein" . Biochemistry . 41 (12): 3991–4001. doi :10.1021/bi011922x . ISSN 0006-2960 . PMC 2905306 . PMID 11900542 .
^ Kang, Tse Siang; Georgieva, Dessislava; Genov, Nikolay; Murakami, Mário T.; Sinha, Mau; Kumar, Ramasamy P.; Kaur, Punit; Kumar, Sanjit; Dey, Sharmistha; Sharma, Sujata; Vrielink, Alice (2011). "Enzymatic toxins from snake venom: structural characterization and mechanism of catalysis" . The FEBS Journal . 278 (23): 4544–4576. doi :10.1111/j.1742-4658.2011.08115.x . ISSN 1742-4658 . PMID 21470368 . S2CID 40199362 .
^ Anandan, Anandhi; Evans, Genevieve L.; Condic-Jurkic, Karmen; O’Mara, Megan L.; John, Constance M.; Phillips, Nancy J.; Jarvis, Gary A.; Wills, Siobhan S.; Stubbs, Keith A.; Moraes, Isabel; Kahler, Charlene M.; Vrielink, Alice (28 February 2017). "Structure of a lipid A phosphoethanolamine transferase suggests how conformational changes govern substrate binding" . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 114 (9): 2218–2223. Bibcode :2017PNAS..114.2218A . doi :10.1073/pnas.1612927114 . ISSN 0027-8424 . PMC 5338521 . PMID 28193899 .
^ Dunlop, Greg (15 February 2017). "Antibiotic resistance: Scientists 'unmask' superbug-shielding protein" . BBC News . Retrieved 7 February 2018 .
^ Wildie, Tom (14 February 2017). "Australian scientists make breakthrough in fight against superbugs" . ABC News . Retrieved 7 February 2018 .
^ "Stopping the rise of the superbug" . Times Higher Education . Archived from the original on 8 February 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2018 .
^ O'Leary, Cathy (14 February 2017). "UWA breakthrough in superbug battle" . The West Australian . Retrieved 7 February 2018 .
^ Mitchell, Samille (14 March 2017). "WA Scientists Fight Deadly Superbugs" . Particle .
^ Kahler, Charlene M.; Nawrocki, K. L.; Anandan, A.; Vrielink, Alice; Shafer, William M. (2018). "Structure-Function Relationships of the Neisserial EptA Enzyme Responsible for Phosphoethanolamine Decoration of Lipid A: Rationale for Drug Targeting" . Frontiers in Microbiology . 9 : 1922. doi :10.3389/fmicb.2018.01922 . ISSN 1664-302X . PMC 6111236 . PMID 30186254 .
^ Anandan, Anandhi; Dunstan, Nicholas W.; Ryan, Timothy M.; Mertens, Haydyn D. T.; Lim, Katherine Y. L.; Evans, Genevieve L.; Kahler, Charlene M.; Vrielink, Alice (1 September 2021). "Conformational flexibility of EptA driven by an interdomain helix provides insights for enzyme–substrate recognition" . IUCrJ . 8 (5): 732–746. doi :10.1107/S2052252521005613 . ISSN 2052-2525 . PMC 8420757 . PMID 34584735 .
External links