Overview
Background
I was awarded my PhD in Computational Biophysics from the University of Western Australia (2012) for my work on combining molecular modelling and simulation approaches with fluorescence spectroscopy experiments to study mechanosensitive ion channels.
Following this, I carried out Postdoctoral work at the University of Queensland and Curtin University, funded by Early Career Fellowships from the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Australian National Health and Research Council (NHMRC). In 2019, I joined UTS under a UTS Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and started my independent research group. In 2021, I returned to the University of Queensland as a Senior Lecturer.
Apart from my research, I am a passionate advocate for mental health in academia and
supporting PhD students. My teaching and supervision are guided by encouraging students to become 'critical thinkers'. I practice mindful leadership and aim to integrate kindness and gratitude into how I lead my research team.
Availability
- Dr Evelyne Deplazes is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Science, Curtin University of Technology
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of Western Australia
Research interests
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Antifungal peptides
Invasive fungal infections are difficult to treat, and many current drugs are toxic to human cells. This project studies the membrane-altering properties of peptides or steroid drugs that have antifungal activity or that increase the potency of existing anti-fungal drugs. Understanding the mechanism of action of these compounds will help develop less toxic antifungal treatments. This project is a collaboration with fungal biologists and combines biophysical chemistry and cell-based experiments.
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Ex-vivo and in-silico structural models of fungal cell membranes and cell walls.
Targets for developing antifungal drugs are limited due to the similarity between fungal and human cells and most antifungal drugs work by interfering with the cell wall or cell membrane. Lipid vesicles or other model membrane systems are regularly used to study drug-membrane interactions, but these model systems are too simplistic to capture the complexity of the cell membrane or wall. This project aims to develop ex-vivo membrane models that better capture drug-membrane interactions. We do this using both biophysical chemistry approaches and computer simulations (in-silico).
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What drives the haemolytic activity of antimicrobial peptides
The rise of antibiotic resistance has renewed the interest in antimicrobial peptides with complex, membrane-based mechanisms. While AMPs have potent antibiotic activity, most of them are also haemolytic (they rupture red blood cells). This project aims to use lipid extracts from cells to develop membrane models that more accurately mimic the haemolytic activity of AMPs and help identify what properties give a peptide potent antibiotic activity yet would be safe to use in humans.
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Steroid – membrane interactions
Steroids are a class of chemical compounds that occur naturally in the body (e.g. progesterone or testosterone) and are also used to treat a range of conditions such asthma, eczema or arthritis. Steroids exert their biological or pharmacological activities via a range of different mechanism, including by altering the structure and fluidity of cell membranes. We combine computer simulations and various wet-lab experiments to understand how steroids interact with membranes and how this might be used to modulate the function of membrane proteins. This project is a collaboration with researchers from the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Sydney.
Research impacts
Our research combines computer simulations and biophysical chemistry experiments to study biomolecular systems with a particular focus on understanding how small molecules interact with biological membranes. We aim to use the knowledge and tools from our research to help develop new pharmaceuticals or understand fundamental processes such as membrane permeation. In addition, we are interested in studying the structure and function of proteins. Our group collaborates with scientists from different fields including structural biologists, molecular and cell biologists as well as peptide and physical chemists to address challenges in biomedical sciences.
https://www.scientia.global/dr-evelyne-deplazes-combining-simulations-experiments-to-explore-interactions-between-membranes-small-molecules/
Works
Search Professor Evelyne Deplazes’s works on UQ eSpace
2014
Book Chapter
Polypeptide and protein modeling for drug design
O’Mara, Megan L. and Deplazes, Evelyne (2014). Polypeptide and protein modeling for drug design. Encyclopedia of computational neuroscience. (pp. 1-9) New York, United States: Springer . doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_732-1
2014
Book Chapter
Polypeptide and protein modeling for drug design
O'Mara, Megan and Deplazes, Evelyne (2014). Polypeptide and protein modeling for drug design. Encyclopedia of computational neuroscience. (pp. 2439-2447) edited by Dieter Jaeger and Ranu Jung. Berlin, Germany: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-6675-8_732
2014
Journal Article
Bacterial mechanosensitive channels: models for studying mechanosensory transduction
Martinac, Boris, Nomura, Takeshi, Chi, Gamma, Petrov, Evgeny, Rohde, Paul R., Battle, Andrew R., Foo, Alexander, Constantine, Maryrose, Rothnagel, Rosalba, Carne, Sonia, Deplazes, Evelyne, Cornell, Bruce, Cranfield, Charles G., Hankamer, Ben and Landsberg, Michael J. (2014). Bacterial mechanosensitive channels: models for studying mechanosensory transduction. Antioxidants and Redox Signaling, 20 (6), 952-969. doi: 10.1089/ars.2013.5471
2012
Journal Article
Structural investigation of MscL gating using experimental data and coarse grained MD simulations
Deplazes, Evelyne, Louhivuori, Martti, Jayatilaka, Dylan, Marrink, Siewert J. and Corry, Ben (2012). Structural investigation of MscL gating using experimental data and coarse grained MD simulations. PLoS Computational Biology, 8 (9) e1002683, e1002683. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002683
2012
Journal Article
Differential effects of lipids and lyso-lipids on the mechanosensitivity of the mechanosensitive channels MscL and MscS
Nomura, Takeshi, Cranfield, Charles G., Deplazes, Evelyne, Owen, Dylan M., Macmillan, Alex, Battle, Andrew R., Constantine, Maryrose, Sokabe, Masahiro and Martinac, Boris (2012). Differential effects of lipids and lyso-lipids on the mechanosensitivity of the mechanosensitive channels MscL and MscS. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109 (22), 8770-8775. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1200051109
2012
Journal Article
ExiFRET: Flexible tool for understanding FRET in complex geometries
Deplazes, Evelyne, Jayatilaka, Dylan and Corry, Ben (2012). ExiFRET: Flexible tool for understanding FRET in complex geometries. Journal of Biomedical Optics, 17 (1) 011005, 011005.1-011005.11. doi: 10.1117/1.JBO.17.1.011005
2011
Journal Article
Testing the use of molecular dynamics to simulate fluorophore motions and FRET
Deplazes, Evelyne, Jayatilaka, Dylan and Corry, Ben (2011). Testing the use of molecular dynamics to simulate fluorophore motions and FRET. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 13 (23), 11045-11054. doi: 10.1039/c1cp20447e
2008
Journal Article
Resolutions of the Coulomb operator
Varganov, Sergey A., Gilbert, Andrew T. B., Deplazes, Evelyne and Gill, Peter M. W. (2008). Resolutions of the Coulomb operator. Journal of Chemical Physics, 128 (20) 201104, 201104.1-201104.4. doi: 10.1063/1.2939239
2008
Journal Article
A combined theoretical and experimental study of the structure and vibrational absorption, vibrational circular dichroism, Raman and Raman optical activity spectra of the L-histidine zwitterion
Deplazes, E., van Bronswijk, W., Zhu, F., Barron, L.D., Ma, S., Nafie, L.A. and Jalkanen, K.J. (2008). A combined theoretical and experimental study of the structure and vibrational absorption, vibrational circular dichroism, Raman and Raman optical activity spectra of the L-histidine zwitterion. Theoretical Chemistry Accounts, 119 (1-3), 155-176. doi: 10.1007/s00214-007-0276-8
Funding
Current funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Evelyne Deplazes is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Available projects
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Research Projects
The projects we work on are at the interface of physical chemistry, structural biology, biophysics and biomedical/biomolecular sciences. These projects are suitable for students with a background in any of these disciplines.
Our research combines computer simulations and biophysical chemistry experiments to study biomolecular systems with a particular focus on understanding how small molecules interact with biological membranes. We aim to use the knowledge and tools from our research to help develop new pharmaceuticals or understand fundamental processes such as membrane permeation. In addition, we are interested in studying the structure and function of proteins.
The following are some of our current projects that are suitable for 3rd and 4th-year undergraduate students, Honours or Masters students. Feel free to contact me for more information and also with your own research ideas. We always aim to adapt the project to the student’s interests, background knowledge and skills.
- Understanding the interaction of antifungal peptides with model and fungal membranes (wet-lab and simulation projects available)
- How do viroporin peptides form pores in membranes? (wet-lab and simulation projects available)
- How do steroids alter the structure and fluidity of cell membranes? (wet-lab and simulation projects available)
- How do small peptides target specific lipids in the membranes? How can we use this to develop new molecular probes and drugs? (simulation projects available)
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Research Projects
The projects we work on are at the interface of physical chemistry, structural biology, biophysics and biomedical/biomolecular sciences. These projects are suitable for students with a background in any of these disciplines.
Our research combines biophysical chemistry experiments and computer simulations to understand how small molecules interact with biological membranes. We aim to use the knowledge and tools from our research to help develop new pharmaceuticals or understand fundamental processes such as membrane permeation. In addition, we are interested in studying the structure and function of proteins.
The following are some of our current projects that are suitable for 3rd and 4th-year undergraduate students, Honours or Masters students. Feel free to contact me for more information and also with your own research ideas. We always aim to adapt the project to the student’s interests, background knowledge and skills.
- Understanding the interaction of antifungal peptides with model and fungal membranes (wet-lab and simulation projects available)
- Developing ex-vivo membrane models that better capture drug-membrane interactions. (wet-lab and simulation projects available)
- How do steroids alter the structure and fluidity of cell membranes? (wet-lab and simulation projects available)
- What drives the haemolytic activity of antimicrobial peptides? (wet-lab projects available)
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Developing small molecule inhibitors to control transcription factor redistribution
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Christian Nefzger
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Doctor Philosophy
Characterising the membrane interactions and cytotoxic activity of the anti-fungal peptide Lactofungin
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor James Fraser
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Doctor Philosophy
Developing a cell-free, structural model of fungal cell walls
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor James Fraser
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Doctor Philosophy
Using advanced imaging technologies to study cellular recognition by bacterial toxins
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Michael Landsberg
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Doctor Philosophy
Investigation of the mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance and design of novel antimicrobials
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Megan O'Mara
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Doctor Philosophy
Targeting alterations in cell membrane biophysics for disease intervention
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Megan O'Mara
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Doctor Philosophy
The structural basis of cell specificity in ABC toxins
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Michael Landsberg
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Doctor Philosophy
Targeting alterations in cell membrane biophysics for disease intervention
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Megan O'Mara
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Doctor Philosophy
Unravelling the Physicochemical Drivers of Biomolecular Self-Assembly though Multiscale Simulations
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor David Ascher, Professor Megan O'Mara
Media
Enquiries
Contact Dr Evelyne Deplazes directly for media enquiries about:
- chemistry
- drug development
- PhD student supervision
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