Science Leaders News Montgomery High School Scientist in Residence
This collaboration came together in a field trip in March 2010, where Montgomery’s Hughes Scholars Science Club visited Vertex Pharmaceuticals. A tour of the facilities included visiting the chemistry and biology labs where new compounds are developed and tested, the engineering lab where machines are built to facilitate drug discovery, and the Compound Management lab, where Vertex produces and stores molecular compounds.
Beyond the tour, the students actually got to perform a small screen for compounds that could become antibiotics. To do this Montgomery’s young scholars carried out an experiment in a 96 well plate. Each well (small indention) on the plastic plate held both a bacterial enzyme as well as a substrate (something the enzymes like to “chew” on). The substrate changes color when the enzyme is active. A different test compound was added to each well, to test its activity on the enzyme. A few prevented the color changes in the assay, which means they inhibit the activity of the bacterial enzyme. These compounds are called "active" and could be the starting points for a new antibiotic medicine.
This fun day was all in preparation for the San Diego Science Festival EXPO, where these same students will be teaching passersby about how new antibiotics may be discovered, and how companies like Vertex work towards these and many other discoveries.
