• Question: what have you discovered

    Asked by boss man 123 to Steven, Eleni, Hannah, Jenny, Oli on 10 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by TheQuestionableChemist571, AndrewL.
    • Photo: Steven Street

      Steven Street answered on 10 Nov 2016:

      Hi boss man 123,

      I have discovered several things!

      The main discovery from my PhD is two new molecules that can bind to a single G-quadruplex structure in telomeric DNA, that can potentially be used to inhibit an enzyme called telomerase, potentially leading to the death of 90% of different cancers! The molecules that I have discovered are the most selective for this particular quadruplex structure ever discovered, which is quite a nice thing to be able to say!

      Hope this answers your question!
      Steve

    • Photo: Hannah Bolt

      Hannah Bolt answered on 16 Nov 2016:

      Hi!

      I’ve discovered quite a few things during my research. Here are the two best things I’ve discovered, that I am most proud of:

      – I found some drugs that are able to kill the parasites that cause the tropical disease called leishmaniasis. These molecules are really good at killing the parasites and are not too toxic to human cells, meaning that they are selective drugs (this is a good thing!)
      – I discovered a new way to make a very useful type of drug molecule which allowed me to make chemicals that no one had ever made before.

      Hannah

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