The Sci-Files – 08/16/2020 – John Williams – Characterizing Killer Compounds for Treating Tuberculosis
August 16, 2020

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview John Tison Williams. John is a PhD-candidate in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics through the College of Natural Sciences. John is in his 5th year and completing his dissertation, which focuses on understanding how small molecules inhibit the growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Dr. Robert B. Abramovitch‘s lab. M. tuberculosis is the primary cause of Tuberculosis (TB), a respiratory infection and the number one cause of death due to a single infectious microbe in the world. TB is a chronic infection, and treatment requires four drugs to be taken daily for 6 months. However, inadequate treatment in some people, has led to the evolution of drug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis, which are spreading person to person. Therefore, new drugs are needed that can successfully treat these resistant strains. The Abramovitch lab previously identified over one hundred and fifty compounds that inhibit M. tuberculosis growth. John’s research revolves around understanding how these compounds prevent M. tuberculosis growth with the hope of developing these compounds into new antibiotics to treat these resistant strains.
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Chelsie is a Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. student at Michigan State University. She studies what happens to the extracellular matrix of cells after they have been stressed. She co-hosts "The Sci-Files" with Daniel Puentes. Together they explore the different topics that MSU students research on "The Sci-Files" at WDBM.

Daniel is a graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, where he does research at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. His research involves measuring the mass of radioactive nuclei, and how it can tell us how protons and neutrons are arranged inside of a nucleus. This research also helps scientists understand how the elements were created in different stellar environments! At WDBM, he and Chelsie Boodoo co-host The Sci-Files.