Rachael is working on a project in natural product chemistry. This is an area of chemistry where natural products, chemicals produced by biological organisms, are screened for specific properties before being purified or modified to be used as pharmaceuticals. Natural products under active investigation in the Kerr lab are those from marine organisms, specifically those from sessile organisms, those that are attached to the sea bottom and do not move. For example, sponges are stationary animals that lack the physical means to protect themselves from predators. Because of this, they have developed the ability to produce chemicals that provide them with a unique mechanism of defense against predators. These chemicals have interesting capabilities, and may be used in different biological tests that apply to human health. For instance, a compound produced by a sponge may have the ability to kill rapidly dividing cells. Since some types of cancer tumors are made up of balls of rapidly dividing cells, this chemical has the potential to be developed into a cancer drug.
Rachael’s specific project has been to work with extracts from three sponges from the Florida coast which have shown activity in four assays in collaboration with two laboratories: an antidiabetic assay, developed by Michel Tremblay’s laboratory at McGill University in Montréal; and three anticancer assays (colon cancer, prostate cancer, and cervical cancer) developed by Balaji Ramanathan’s laboratory at the Atlantic Veterinary College. All three extracts have tested positive for activity in these four tests. Rachael has been using various laboratory techniques to purify, isolate, and identify which compound is responsible for the activity in each of these assays.
Student Research