Valkyrie Spring 2018 - Issue 3

Written by Sara Arms | Design by Hannah Hardwell
Changing
the Face of
Cystic Fibrosis
Treatment
MaCallister Labs have been busy with potentially
life-saving research. As junior Britton
Ody explained,
“Our research is based off of re-modifying an existing
drug compound that treats cystic fibrosis and
making it more effective. We currently have about five
students working on the project. Dr. Turlington is
our advisor and hired all of us to synthesize the compounds
that he’s done the research on and believes will
be more effective than the existing drug molecules.”
By adding an azide group, a special grouping of nitrogen
atoms, into the molecule, the drug compound will
become more efficient.
Ody, junior Jake Doiron and senior Jon Brace are
working on this project, which began this summer.
“Over the summer, we all work from 9am-5pm
everyday,” said Ody. “During the day we’ll run reactions,
run columns, record data via [Nuclear magnetic
resonance (NMR)], and a ton of other chemistry lab
techniques and procedures to build our molecules. The
skills we learn in lab have really helped me do better in
my chemistry classes as well. Now seeing how all the
knowledge I’ve been building comes together and I’ve
learned to apply it, my understanding of chemistry
has improved tremendously. I really would say to any
young chemistry students that if you’re serious about
what you do and you really want to take you’re understanding
to the next level, nothing beats chemistry.”
The project goes between research and the lab,
where they continue to experiment and find new ways
to make the cystic fibrosis drug stronger.
“The in-lab stuff is my favorite part though,” said
Ody. “Actually setting up your lab bench and preparing
compounds is what I love about chemistry. I’ll
have these moments where I feel like Mr. White from
Breaking Bad.
The project has come with its fair share of surprises.
“The one thing I really didn’t expect was the amount
of time I sat down to just run a column, somedays
these will take up to about five hours…We use a variety
of instruments in the lab. The big NMR is used
two to three times a day. We also use a lot of standard
equipment like bearers, flask and columns.”
NMR machines like the one pictured above use magnets
to observe magnetic fields around atomic nuclei
8 Funk
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