News Release

Elizabeth Theil, Ph.D. selected for prestigious award

Award recognizes the achievements of women chemists

Grant and Award Announcement

Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland

August 20, 2007 - Oakland, CA – The 2008 The Francis P. Garvan–John M. Olin Medal Awardee is being announced today by the American Chemical Society (ACS). Recognizing distinguished research and service achieved by women chemists, the Award is the third oldest ACS award and first award established to honor women chemists. The award consists of $5,000 in addition to a commemorative medal and certificate. Elizabeth Theil, Ph.D., senior scientist at Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland’s research institute, has been awarded the prestigious Garvan-Olin Medal for her research on the chemistry of iron in biology and for her advocacy of biochemistry studies in the education of all chemists.

Dr. Theil was honored for her research on the structure, function and genetic control of Nature’s bioreactor for iron and oxygen, ferritin. Ferritin is a protein cage with a nano-sized ball of rust inside. The ferritin gene, mRNA and protein are important in understanding iron overload, a complication of sickle cell disease and thalassemia. Ferritin is also a factor in the treatment of iron deficiency anemia, which is common in both women and children. The iron in the seeds of many legumes (soybeans, garbanzos, lentils, etc) is in ferritin and humans can absorb the iron from the ferritin in the seeds. Iron is an element that Dr. Theil describes as something that “we can’t live with, but we can’t live without”. Too much iron clogs our system, but not enough iron makes us weak.

Individuals awarded the honor are nominated in an anonymous process, with selection by a committee of distinguished chemists. “I am honored by this recognition of my scientific accomplishments” said Dr. Theil.

Dr. Theil was also recognized for her commitment to new areas in chemical education, where she was an early advocate for the requirement of biochemistry in ACS approved curricula. Her position recognizes the rapid expansion of chemistry into biology in the 21st century. The ACS is one of the few learned scientific societies that evaluate the undergraduate education of future scientific members.

Dr. Theil is one of the thirty-five principle investigators (PI) at CHORI and is currently the Leader of the Council of BioIron at the research institute. In addition she is an adjunct professor in the Department of Nutrition, Science, and Toxicology at the University of California, Berkeley and in the Department of Molecular Structural Biology at North Carolina State University, where she formerly was The University Professor of Biochemistry and Physics.

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The award and the ceremony, will take place April 8, 2008 at the ACS meeting in New Orleans. For more information on Dr. Theil’s research, please visit

http://www.chori.org/Principal_Investigators/Theil_Elizabeth_C/theil_overview.html.

For more information about the America Chemical Society and the Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal, please visit www.chemistry.org

Research at Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland, CA

Research efforts at Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland are coordinated through Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI). Children’s Hospital Oakland is Northern California’s only freestanding and independent children’s hospital. CHORI’s internationally renowned biomedical research facility brings together seven centers of excellence that are devoted to clinical and basic science research to treat and prevent disease. CHORI has approximately 300 staff members and an annual budget of more than $49 million. The National Institutes of Health is CHORI’s primary funding source. The institute is a leader in translational research, bringing bench discoveries to bedside applications. These include providing cures for blood diseases, developing new vaccines for infectious diseases and discovering new treatment protocols for previously fatal or debilitating conditions such as cancers, sickle cell disease and thalassemia, diabetes, asthma, HIV/AIDS, pediatric obesity, nutritional deficiencies, birth defects, hemophilia and cystic fibrosis.


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