Ellen Chao

School: Northwestern University

Major: Chemistry

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-8vv9-mc32

My name is Ellen and as a California native, I decided to leave the sun behind for beautiful Evanston to pursue a BA/MS in chemistry at Northwestern University. My research is focused on connecting biology and chemistry as I attempt to find a novel anthelmintic compound to treat parasitic infections in pets, livestock, and humans. As a member of the Andersen and Kelleher labs, I strive to understand parasitic drug resistance from an interdisciplinary perspective. From manipulating genetics to culturing natural products, my research includes a broad range of exciting frontiers that I am thrilled to be a part of. Although I truly enjoy the process of research, I would like to pursue a medical degree on my path to becoming a physician. Besides research, I enjoy running by the Lakefill (to pet as many dogs as I can) and baking in my free time. 

Determining the Toxicity of Natural Products on Caenorhabditis elegans in the Search for New Anthelmintic Drug Leads

Abstract

This project aims to discover new molecules from microbial extracts that prove toxic to C. elegans yet harmless to mammals. First, fractionation of natural products produced by cultures of fungal and bacterial strains was performed and were analyzed using mass spectrometry. After a sufficient number of extract fractions were acquired and examined, high-throughput assays (HTA) were performed on C. elegans. One promising compound has been screened against C. elegans, and while the results seem to illustrate a sensitivity to the compound in traits such as mean time of flight (animal length), this may be an artifact of the assay because the brood size (animal fertility) seemed to increase with increasing drug concentration. The active ingredient in the toxin tested against C. elegans was found to be Antimycin A, a compound that induces mitochondrial stress and increases the reactive oxygen species (ROS) within the organism. This project is ongoing and thus, once more novel fractions are found, they will be purified and the structure of the bioactive compound will be elucidated using NMR, mass spectrometry, and HPLC techniques to correlate its anthelmintic properties with a chemical structure.