Ann Valentine, professor and chair of the chemistry department at Temple University, will deliver the 2023 Henry J. and Linda C. Pownall Lecture in Chemistry at Wilkes University at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 18, in Stark Learning Center 105. The lecture, “Exploring a Role for Titanium in Biochemistry,” is free and open to the public.
Titanium is the ninth most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. Humans find many applications for titanium: in powerful catalysts, in structural materials, in paints and pigments and more. Yet conventional wisdom holds that biology has very little to do with this metal. Titanium has a reputation for extreme inertness that is belied by data from several experimental systems.
The lecture will address interactions between titanium and biology at the molecular level, with special focus on cases where organisms and/or biomolecules induce the formation of, bind to, or even dissolve titanium minerals. Some potential medicinal implications will also be addressed.
The presentation will run approximately 50 minutes with a 10-minute Q&A session to follow.
Valentine is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She earned her bachelor of science at the University of Virginia and her doctorate at MIT. After an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at Penn State University, Valentine served as an assistant and then associate professor of chemistry at Yale University. She moved to Temple University in 2011. Her lab research focuses on bioinorganic chemistry and she has co-authored more than 50 scientific publications.
The Pownall Lecture in Chemistry was established thanks to Henry J. and Linda C. Pownall. Henry Pownall, PhD, graduated from Wilkes College in 1967 with a master’s degree in chemistry. He earned his doctorate from Northeastern University in physical chemistry with postdoctoral fellowships in molecular spectroscopy at the University of Houston, and biochemistry at Baylor College of Medicine with an emphasis on lipid metabolism.
Professor Anne Valentine to Deliver Pownall Lecture in Chemistry at Wilkes University on Oct. 18
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