sCIENCE 10
dRUG dISCOVERY lAB
Summer 2024
Introduction
Whether you are just beginning your chemistry journey (Chem 10 or Chem 19) or whether you are wrapping up Organic Chemistry, I have a project for you to learn how new medicines/pharmaceutical drugs are developed by participating in the process!
Join us this Summer 2024 for the Science 10 Drug Discovery Lab! The class is limited to 18 students so be sure to secure your spot! Registration for Summer 2024 classes begins late April/early May (students should login to Corsair Connect for their specific registration window).
The unique feature of this Science 10 course is that students will be getting a chance to do BOTH the chemistry and biology work (but all wrapped into one class!). All projects will involve either the synthesis/isolation/structure determination of an organic molecule AND the biological testing of that molecule!
Science is increasingly interdisciplinary and the process of discovering and developing new medicines is a great example of this interdisciplinary enterprise. At the end of this summer experience, students will have more experience with doing chemistry/microbiology research than when they started and having this experience on your resume can act as a springboard for securing an even more in-depth research experience in the future.
Class Meeting times/format
The Summer 2024 Science 10 will run 6 weeks from 6/17 to 7/26
In-person lab meetings on Tues and Thurs from 9am to 1pm in Sci 305 (Organic Chemistry Lab room)
Lectures will be posted online and can be watched at your own pace (asynchronous format).
Science 10 is officially titled "Principles and Practice of Scientific Research". The specific focus is determined by the particular instructor and this summer's Science 10 will be on the Drug Discovery process.
Registration Information: General enrollment for this course begins May 7 (each student's unique enrollment date/time is available to them via Corsair Connect). Before May 7, enrollment is restricted to STEM/MAS students based on their enrollment window.
Project 1: Identifying antimicrobial compounds from essential oils
Plants have been used by mankind as a source of medicines for thousands of years. Essential oils are readily obtained by carrying out the steam distillation of various plant materials. Students will learn how to separate an essential oil into its various chemical components using aqueous extraction and column chromatography and will learn to measure the antimicrobial activity for each chemical compound using the Kirby-Bauer assay. With these skills in hand, the students can choose an essential oil of their own choosing and embark on a journey to isolating the bioactive component! This project will give the student an appreciation for the wide variety of compounds that are naturally present in a plant and how chemists selectively purify a single bioactive compound from the mixture.
This project will be available to students of all chemistry backgrounds.
Project 2: Synthesis of antimicrobial compounds via the Suzuki-miyaura Cross coupling reaction
The Suzuki-Miyaura Cross Coupling Reaction is one of the go-to reactions in the toolbox of the medicinal chemist because of how reliably it can forge a C-C bond between two sp2 hybridized carbons. Palladium-catalyzed cross coupling reactions were recognized with the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In this project, students will utilize the Suzuki-Miyaura Cross Coupling to synthesize compounds, purify, characterize compounds and test them for antimicrobial activity using the Kirby Bauer Assay. The class data will be pooled to see if there are any trends between the structure of the molecule and its observed biological activity (Structure-Activity Relationships). This project will give the student experience of what it is like to work as a medicinal chemist.
This project will be available only to students who have completed Chem 21 (Organic Chemistry 1).
About the Instructor: Dr. Timothy Dong has been teaching at SMC since 2015. He teaches courses in General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry. If you have any questions about this course, please feel free to email him at dong_timothy@gapps.smc.edu (Website)