Marie Heffern, associate professor and vice chair of academic personnel of the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Davis, will deliver the 2026 Henry J. and Linda C. Pownall Lecture in Chemistry at Wilkes University.
The Pownall Lecture is free and open to the public, and will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. in the Jean and Paul Adams Commons, second floor of the Henry Student Center, 84 West South Street, Wilkes-Barre. No registration is required.
“Metalloendocrinology: How Copper, Iron and Zinc Talk to Hormones in Health and Disease”
Copper, iron and zinc are essential to life, but too much, too little or the wrong form of these metals is linked to diseases – from diabetes to cancer. What matters is not just how much metal is present, but where it is and what it is bound to. In this talk, Heffern will describe how her lab uses chemical reactivity to explore metals in the extracellular space, particularly blood, where metals interact with hormones and carrier proteins in ways we are only beginning to understand. She will discuss new detection methods, proteomics-based approaches and molecular studies of clinically relevant biomolecules as well as demonstrate how this emerging area, “metalloendocrinology,” informs nutritional strategies, therapeutic peptide design and biomarker discovery for metabolic disease. The presentation will run approximately 50 minutes with a 10-minute Q&A session to follow.
Heffern also serves as scientific director of the Campus Mass Spectrometry Facilities and co-director of the NIGMS T32 Chemical Biology Program. Her research sits at the intersection of bioinorganic chemistry, analytical chemistry and chemical biology, focusing on how trace metals like copper, zinc and iron influence hormone function and metabolic health, with the goal of uncovering new biomarkers and diagnostic approaches for conditions such as diabetes, liver disease and cancer. She earned her BS/BA in chemistry and religious studies, with a minor in ancient religions and classical languages, from the University of Southern California. She received her doctorate from Northwestern University as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and completed postdoctoral training at UC Berkeley as a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow.
The Pownall Lecture in Chemistry was established thanks to Henry J. and Linda C. Pownall. Henry Pownall, 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.
For more information, visit wilkes.edu/pownall.