Young people have exciting, educational breakthroughs every day.

But it’s rare for those milestones to take place in a local park, a wad of goose poop in hand.

For a group of young students from the James R. Jordan Boys and Girls Club in Chicago, Illinois, that’s exactly what happened.

These middle schoolers became “bonafide biomedical scientists,” thanks to a STEM program led by Professor Brian Murphy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

Murphy led the students in collecting and analyzing environmental samples from the Garfield Park Lagoon as part of a 14-week applied science program designed to bring STEM projects to underrepresented groups. 

According to the researchers, there are three components to the Chicago Antibiotic Discovery Lab program: Field work, applied science experiments, and environmental literacy.

“Each week builds upon one another, all while a near-peer mentoring team links each module to different careers in the sciences,” Murphy explained. 

“Middle school students build mentorship connections with graduate students or postdoctoral scientists, who help guide the project through joint decision-making throughout the program.”

Aside from integrating hands-on STEM studies into the students’ education, their goal was to find new antibiotic candidates from natural sources.

One unique sample — goose poop found by student Camarria Williams — stood out among the rest. 

The sample contained both a bacterium that showed antibiotic activity and a novel compound that slowed the growth of human melanoma and ovarian cancer cells in lab tests.

After gathering their samples, the students used laboratory robotics to program a specialized robot to isolate bacteria and test for antimicrobial activity. 

“You can expect that only about 1 to 5% of any isolates would really be a hit,” Jin Yi Tan, a UIC graduate student who volunteers with the youth, told Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant. 

“Some of the samples did have antibiotic properties that were already known—they had been previously discovered. It’s still really exciting for the kids when we tell them that we found an active antibiotic molecule in their sample.”

The bacterium was identified as Pseudomonas idahoensis, and Murphy’s lab of researchers went on to study it with more advanced technology.

Murphy, Tan, and the university team published their findings in the American Chemical Society’s ACS Omega journal earlier this year. Williams, who found the goose poop sample, is also credited as a co-author on the research.

Their findings point to a previously unknown molecule, named orfamide N, which did not account for the compound’s antibacterial activity but did have an ability to inhibit the growth of human cancer cells in lab cultures.

“We identified some compounds to be cyclic peptides, which are famous for having biologic activity,” Murphy told Sea Grant. “Amazingly, it turns out these particular compounds don’t have antibiotic activity, but they do have cytotoxic activity — activity against some cancer cell lines.”

Moving forward, Murphy’s team will further investigate orfamide N to understand its additional pharmacological benefits or how it may work with other compounds. 

According to a press release from ACS, further studies could reveal other advantageous properties of this newly characterized molecule.

While it’s unclear what the future holds for this exciting new compound, one thing is certain: These young scientists have a bright future ahead of them.

“Chicago has a long history of disparities, whether they’re rooted in socioeconomics or race-based policies — this is an opportunity to use high-end biomedical science to help bridge some of the documented gaps in STEM participation,” Murphy told Sea Grant.

“By working with local organizations or community centers we can bring citizens into the process of discovering antibiotics.”

‍

Header images courtesy of Chicago Antibiotic Discovery Lab and Shashank Verma/Unsplash