Professor Bonnie Ann Wallace

Winner: 2020 Khorana Prize

Birkbeck, University of London

For the pioneering development of biophysical methods and bioinformatics tools to enable the characterisation of ion channel-drug molecule complexes.

Celebrate Professor Bonnie Ann Wallace

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To be the first to see, know, or discover something no one else has yet done or seen, is a massive joy and motivation.

Professor Wallace’s work has included both experimental and computational studies on membrane proteins, focusing recently on voltage-gated sodium channels, which are responsible for electrical signalling in excitable tissues. Mutations in these channels cause a wide range of neurological and cardiovascular diseases, so knowledge of the relationship between their structures and function provides an important key for developing treatments for such diseases as epilepsy and chronic pain.

Professor Wallace’s lab was the first to determine the three-dimensional (crystal) structure of an open, active, full-length sodium channel, and to identify the locations of the three sodium ions within the channel selectivity filter, and the features that define their unique specificity for sodium versus other types of ions. This information is helping guide the development of new pharmaceutical drugs.

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Bonnie Ann Wallace is Professor of Molecular Biophysics in the Department of Biological Sciences at Birkbeck, University of London and at the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology (Birkbeck and UCL). She obtained her PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale and did postdoctoral work (as a Jane Coffin Childs fellow) at Harvard and at the MRC Lab of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. She was an Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Columbia University, then Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Biophysics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Following a sabbatical visit (as a Fogarty Fellow) at Birkbeck, Professor Wallace moved her lab permanently to the UK. She was the first recipient of the Dayhoff Award of The Biophysical Society, received the Irma T. Hirschl Award and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and was named one of the ten top young scientists in America by Fortune Magazine. She received the 2009 Interdisciplinary Prize from the 欧美AV and the 2010 AstraZeneca Award from the Biochemical Society for her work in developing new spectroscopic methods, and in 2017 was elected an Honorary Member of the British Biophysical Society and a Fellow of The (US) Biophysical Society.

Her research interests are focused on the structure and function of voltage-gated sodium channels, and on the development of new methods and bioinformatics tools for characterising membrane and soluble proteins. Amongst other developments, her lab was the first to determine the crystal structure of an open, active, full-length sodium channel, and to link its structure with its functional and pharmacological properties.

Q+A

How did you first become interested in chemistry?

When I was a high school student in America, I was fortunate to have a teacher who took the time to run a special advanced placement course in chemistry in the hour before school started for a small select group of students to give us additional teaching, and who gave me (only) the opportunity to design my own experiments, and obtained the equipment and materials to enable me to do them. I was the only female in the group of around 20 students and the only junior in a group which was otherwise composed of seniors (final year students). This started me on my way to the idea of a career in scientific research.

What motivates you?

I am motivated by the love of doing research and teaching science to my talented students, postdocs, researchers and working with expert collaborators. The opportunity to do, and excitement of working on, new and novel science is immensely rewarding. To be the first to see, know, or discover something no one else has yet done or seen, is a massive joy and motivation.

Why do you think teamwork is important in science?

I have been very fortunate to be able to work in two exciting areas of science: structural biology and bioinformatics. In each of these areas I have helped train and work with students, researchers and postdocs that have gone on to lead their own groups in chemistry (and other related fields), which has been both satisfying and a source of pride. I have the added bonus that one of these areas (bioinformatics) has been a journey shared with my husband (Dr Robert Janes of Queen Mary University of London) for more than 25 years. Working in two areas of Chemistry/Biochemistry means I always have many new things to think about.

Why do you think international collaboration is important in science?

My career has been located in both the UK and the USA, but my work has included collaborations not only in those countries but also around the world, including many countries in North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. My group members have also come from many of these countries, and interactions with them have enriched my science and the cultural interactions in many ways.

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