Kristine is working on a project in natural product chemistry. This is an area of chemistry where natural products are screened for medicinal properties, then purified or modified, to be used as pharmaceuticals. Some of the natural products that are under active investigation are those from marine organisms, especially those that are fixed in place and cannot move. For example, marine organisms such as corals can’t move to defend themselves against predators, so many of them have chemical defence mechanisms, using compounds called secondary metabolites. These compounds help protect them from predators, diseases and parasites and many are now being studied for their pharmaceutical properties. Kristine’s summer research project involved a secondary metabolite which has previously been isolated from a coral found in the Florida Keys. This compound has good potential to be used as an anticancer drug, but it is not potent enough for pharmaceutical companies to be interested in putting it through clinical trials. The compound is produced in relatively large amounts by the coral, though, so if the potency could be increased, it could be a good candidate for testing. Therefore, her goal was to alter it slightly by using different chemical reactions to produce several derivatives of the original compound. These new compounds will be put through trials which will test their ability to kill cancer cells, and see if they are better or worse than the original drug.
Student Research