In an intensive Wintersession course at Brown, undergraduates learned lab techniques and performed experiments as they sought breakthrough discoveries to inform future antibiotic treatments.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - On an early-January afternoon in a large Brown University Biomedical Center laboratory, scientists are analyzing water samples for bacteria that could be used in antibiotics to treat infectious disease. Each is wearing a white coat and focusing intently on a test tube as they perform gel electrophoresis, a process that allows them to separate the DNA in their samples by pushing it past an electrical field and through a gel that contains small pores. Despite the technical complexity of the endeavor, this marks the first time that some of the scientists have conducted research in a lab.
That's because the scientists are Brown undergraduates enrolled in an immersive course called Antibiotic Drug Discovery: Identifying Novel Soil Microbes to Combat Antibiotic Resistance. The class runs for four weeks during Wintersession, an intensive and often-intense academic term between Brown's fall and spring semesters.
Antibiotic resistance is a major global health threat, explained Toni-Marie Achilli, a senior lecturer in biology who developed and teaches the course. Pharmaceutical companies are less likely to fund research and development for new antibiotics due to their relative low profitability, Achilli said - yet as bacteria become more resistant to antibiotics, a robust pipeline of new drug options is needed to combat pathogens.
And that's precisely the need the students in the class are helping to address, as they participate with a global research consortium in the quest to discover life-saving new drugs.
Antibiotic Drug Discovery is an example of Brown's course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), which are designed to provide students the opportunity to engage in research experiences that cultivate their investigative skills, sense of discovery and interest in STEM and social science fields.
"The course provides a really authentic type of research experience," Achilli said. "The students are asking novel questions, and they're developing the scientific skills of designing experiments and the technical skills of performing laboratory techniques to explore those questions. This course can be an incredible springboard for them, if they do want to continue pursuing research. And it's an equally valuable opportunity for those who want to give research a try if only to learn that it's not for them."
Many of the students who take the course end up pursuing research at Brown and beyond. Achilli recalled one participant who in 2021 discovered a new type of chromobacterium. Nikolas Montaquila took the initiative to find a collaborator from Midwestern University to learn about the chromobacterium, then brought the project back to Brown and developed an independent study with Dr. Gerard Nau, an associate professor of medicine and clinician educator at the Warren Alpert Medical School and an infectious diseases physician at the nearby Rhode Island and Miriam hospitals. The student is now in his first year of medical school at Brown, and the project is ongoing.
"Not only did Nikolas continue conducting scientific research, in general, but he was able to continue the research on what he found in this class," Achilli said. "In fact, Dr. Nau just reached out to me this month, asking if he could add an assay from his lab to this Wintersession class to try to find more isolates for his lab to continue studying."
