How a middle schooler found a new compound in a piece of goose poop

Inequities in educational resources, especially those in science, engineering, technology and math (STEM), where experiments are expensive, have kept some students underrepresented in these fields. By engaging a group of these students early in real, high-quality research, a team from the University of Illinois at Chicago led by Brian Murphy is providing young learners a chance to see themselves as scientists and explore careers in science with hands-on experience. The team partnered with a Boys and Girls Club in Chicago to bring interested middle schoolers into a 14-week applied science program.

Murphy’s lab is focused on discovering antibiotics from natural sources, and the cohort of young scientists participated by supplying environmental samples from their local communities. And the students’ contributions to the research group didn’t end there. They stayed actively involved throughout the scientific discovery process by programming a specialized robot to scoop up bacterial colonies from growth plates and test them for antibiotic activity.

One of the 14 samples collected — goose poop from the Garfield Park Lagoon — contained a strain of bacteria called Pseudomonas idahoensis. The students interpreted the bacterium’s bioassay data and concluded it had antibiotic activity and produced a never-before-seen compound. Then, the university researchers determined the compound’s molecular structure using nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry, named it orfamide N after the family of molecules it belongs to, and investigated its biological activity. Although orfamide N was not responsible for the antibiotic activity that the team initially observed from P. idahoensis, the compound inhibited the growth of human melanoma and ovarian cancer cells in culture tests. Further studies could reveal other advantageous properties of this newly characterized molecule.

The researchers say that this work proves that it’s possible to combine educational outreach with natural product discovery research, and it emphasizes the importance of a strong relationship between universities and their local communities.

The authors acknowledge funding from the University of Illinois at Chicago Graduate College, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, an Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Faculty Scholar Award, the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Graduate Student Scholar Award, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. They extend special thanks to the volunteer outreach mentors at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago.