I had always envisioned myself
going to medical school, becoming a physician, and prescribing
various medications for my patients to feel better. Little did I anticipate how interesting
it would be to make medications. From working in a drug
discovery lab for almost a year now with my organic chemistry professor, I’ve
become heavily interested in the science of drug discovery. There are so many
illnesses that are lacking medicines, and the need for ongoing drug discovery
research is very urgent. As someone dedicated to treating patients one day,
this experience allows me to contribute to that cause. Working on this project
has allows me to develop my skill in research, enhance my knowledge in organic chemistry,
and establish a strong relationship with my mentor, which will prepare me as a medical
school candidate.
My project’s goal is to produce
novel drugs containing the triazoloquinoline chemical group
that have stronger therapeutic potential when applied to the diseases. It is
intended that our new drugs will make drugs more selective and potent than
current triazoloquinoline drugs on the market.
On a weekly basis, I visit the lab and work on either cooking up a
chemical reaction, extracting water and impurities from the crude mixture,
purifying the chemicals on a gel column, or using spectroscopy such as nuclear-magnetic
resonance (NMR) to characterize the final product.
I’ve discovered that
medicine-making is quite difficult and chemicals in reality react very
differently than what is theoretically assumed to happen based on current
organic chemistry knowledge. We’ve only scratched the surface of reactions in
organic chemistry and hopefully my project contributes to our overall medicinal
chemistry understanding in addition to triazoloquinoline chemistry.
