Deborah B. Zamble
Professor
Department of Biochemistry
University of Toronto
Canada
Biography
Deborah B. Zamble grew up in Kingston, Ontario. She graduated with a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and Chemistry from the University of Toronto, studying zinc-finger proteins for her undergraduate thesis in the lab of Prof. B. Sarkar. She earned a Ph.D. in 1999 in Biological Chemistry at M. I. T., where she worked under the guidance of Stephen J. Lippard on the mechanism of action of the anticancer drug cisplatin. This research examined the activity of the nucleotide excision repair pathway on the different types of cisplatin-DNA cross-links, and the role of p53 in the cellular response to the drug. Deborah then moved across the river to work as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow with Christopher T. Walsh at Harvard Medical School, studying the zinc-containing protein component of the antibiotic Microcin B17 synthetase. In 2001 Deborah moved back to the University of Toronto, where her lab examines how bacteria handle transition metal nutrients. In particular, the focus is on the use of nickel by pathogenic microorganisms, including uptake, storage, distribution and genetic regulation.
Research Interest
Metallobiochemistry
