Many proteins and enzymes bind heme, a porphyrin to which an iron atom is attached.
English won the 2024 Eraldo Antonini Award for her seminal research on heme proteins and enzymes, which play many important biological roles, including the transportation of oxygen throughout the body by hemoglobin. The award is named after prominent Italian biochemist Antonini, who made seminal contributions to the understanding of hemoglobin and myoglobin.
“I’m very honoured to have won an international award that’s named after this impressive Italian researcher,” she says.
“When I look at the people that have won before me, they are all leaders in the field. So it’s very rewarding and humbling to be among that list of awardees.”
English, also an Honorary Concordia University Research Chair in Bioinorganic Chemistry, began researching various types of heme proteins and enzymes when she started her career at the university.
In particular, she has looked at the role of heme enzymes in controlling levels of hydrogen peroxide, a toxin found in our bodies. English has also looked at alternative functions of hemoglobin in the body, especially its role in blood flow.
English has long been a driving force in bioinorganic chemistry research in Canada. She was the first to bring the research field to Concordia when she arrived in 1982 and has had an important impact on the university’s research sector.
English explains that mass spectrometry revolutionized the way chemists and biologists do research, allowing them to examine proteins, how they are modified in cells and by drugs, and what other proteins they interact with. She additionally obtained funding for a specialized mass spectrometer to measure trace elements in biological samples, instrumentation that is also used to analyze chemical, industrial and environmental samples.
“I’m very happy that biological mass spectrometry evolved during my career so that I could use the technology and do a lot of very interesting research efficiently and effectively,” she shares.
English has also supervised and successfully graduated more than 55 graduate students and mentored 37 postdoctoral fellows and research associates.
Groundbreaking research
Combining the resources available in CBAMS and CERMM, English’s research has helped clarify some longstanding questions about hemoglobin’s reactions with another small gaseous molecule, nitric oxide (NO).
By dilating small blood vessels, NO plays a pivotal role in directing blood flow to where oxygen is needed. For example, when someone is running, NO helps facilitate increased blood flow and oxygen delivery to their leg muscles.
Her research explored how hemoglobin, a protein traditionally associated with oxygen transport, interacts with NO to regulate the dilation of blood vessels to meet the body’s specific oxygen demands.
English made paradigm-shifting discoveries about a heme peroxidase previously thought to only remove toxic hydrogen peroxide from yeast cells. This enzyme, far from being a simple detoxifier, plays a crucial role as a sensor, signalling to the cell nucleus to take defensive action when hydrogen peroxide levels build up.
She also discovered that this heme enzyme acts as a heme transporter that releases its heme in response to increased hydrogen peroxide exposure, turning on detoxification by catalase, a more specialized heme enzyme.
English’s findings challenge previous beliefs and underscore the complex, multitasking role of proteins in sophisticated cellular response mechanisms, marking a significant contribution to the understanding of cellular defense.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
