When Sam Charney is not learning chemistry in the classroom, he is exploring his next chemistry gig. Not one, not two, but three of his summers have been spent gaining valuable research experience in the field.
One summer, he conducted research on natural products in Professor Seth Herzon’s lab. Another summer, he interned at AstraZeneca, where he learned about drug development.
This summer, he conducted an independent research project in Herzon’s lab thanks to the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship he received from the American Chemical Society’s Division of Organic Chemistry.
“I was honored to be selected for the fellowship,” said Charney, an undergraduate chemistry student. “It was an amazing opportunity to participate in this program with 15 of my organic chemistry peers from around the country, attending educational and career development sessions over the summer, and then hearing everyone present their work at the end.”
Charney’s research project aims to shed light on the pathology of nocardiosis, a bacterial infection that affects the lungs, skin, and brain. The current understanding of the mechanisms of Nocardia bacteria is limited. It is difficult to culture, and the organism’s structure is complex.
To address this challenge, Charney is working to synthesize a compound that’s naturally produced by pathogenic Nocardia strains during infection. By intentionally recreating the nocardiosis-associated polyketide natural product from simpler starting materials, he hopes to characterize its molecular structure and discover biological activities.
His findings may help other researchers further understand the structure-activity relationship and possibly expose the pathogenicity of Nocardia.
Charney presented his research project, “Progress Towards the Synthesis of Nocardiosis-Associated Polyketide Natural Product,” at a conference at the Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) campus in San Diego, California, on Sept. 18.
“The team was incredibly welcoming and organized a wonderful slate of events, including educational talks, career panels, networking opportunities, a welcome dinner, our poster session, and an awards ceremony,” he said.
“I loved presenting my work to my peers and to the chemists at BMS. It was inspiring to hear their insights on my project and next steps, as well as my future chemistry career in my PhD and beyond. It truly felt like I was taking my first steps into the broader chemistry community beyond Yale, and the experience was genuinely exceptional.
“The trip and fellowship as a whole reinforced why I’m so passionate about this field and left me more motivated than ever to pursue a career in chemical research.”
Charney is in his senior year at Yale College. Outside of the lab, he enjoys playing tennis on the Yale Club Tennis team.