By Kymberley Scroggie, Breaking Good

Undergraduate students at the University of Sydney in collaboration with The Breaking Good Project are back in the laboratory.

With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, Special Studies Program (SSP) students at the University of Sydney, have been able to return to the laboratory this semester to continue their hands-on chemistry training. As part of their laboratory course, students are participating in Breaking Good, working toward the synthesis of six brand new compounds to contribute to the Open Source Malaria (OSM) consortium. The synthesis route was developed by the OSM network who work together openly to speed up and reduce the cost of discovering new medicines for the treatment of malaria. At the end of the program, the new compounds will be tested for their antimalarial activity against the parasites that cause malaria.

Malaria is an infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes. In 2018, over 220 million people worldwide were infected with malaria. Disproportionately, the majority of cases (93%), and deaths (94%) occur in Africa. In recent years the parasites causing malaria have been gaining resistance to the medicines used to treat it. That is why new medicines have to be discovered and tested - a process that just can’t wait!

In addition to contributing to drug discovery research of the OSM consortium, students encounter some very unique learning experiences. In school and first year university laboratories students normally engage in experiments with well established procedures and results. By participating in Breaking Good, students are engaging in the synthesis of molecules and conducting experiments which have never been performed before. By doing so, students experience what it is like to be a real scientist, exposed to uncertainty in the synthesis process and learn the trial and error cycle that is inherent in scientific research. 

Drug discovery research has so many real-life applications. By participation in Breaking Good students have developed good grounds for learning about science and its broader societal context. It inspires students to think about science in a broader context, considering its public health implications which are of special importance in these challenging and unprecedented times.   

Interested in engaging your students in Breaking Good? Contact us at - thebreakinggoodproject@gmail.com

Are you into chemistry and drug discovery? Read more about the synthesis pathways students are engaged with here.