Joseph Kipronoh Rugutt
Missouri State University, USA
Title: USA-Kenya collaboration in guided-inquiry green nanoscience drug discovery research
Biography
Biography: Joseph Kipronoh Rugutt
Abstract
The Department of Chemistry at Missouri State University-West Plains (MSU-WP) is internationalizing the existing research activities by initiating a collaborative USA-Kenya drug discovery project. Professors Rugutt (MSU-WP) and Kiplimo (University of Kabianga (UoK), Kenya) are indebted to the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship (CADF) program for a three-month award that supported the project. Undergraduate, graduate, and high school students played an integral part in implementation of all research and educational activities. The overarching goal of the project is to establish synergistic relationships between different research groups and academic institutions in Kenya and MSU-WP. We chose natural products as the centerpiece of our collaboration because many medicinal Kenyan plants represent an important and underexploited reservoir of potentially new pharmaceutical drugs. Our preliminary results on bioassay-directed fractionation and screening of representative plants afforded several compounds that exhibited various bioactivities including anticancer, antimalarial, anti-HIV, antimicrobial, antimycobaterial, and antifungal. After identifying the most active natural products (sesquiterpene lactones, flavonoids, binaphthyls, steroids, etc.), we conducted a hypothesis-driven green nanosynthetic modifications in order to pinpoint the essential structural features necessary for bioactivity. Novel compounds were prepared based on the world’s best
“named reactions” such as those developed by Nobel Laureates (Diels-Alder, Grubbs, etc.). Our integration of research and education was anchored on the fact that natural products research cuts across many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines such as medicinal, organic, analytical, and inorganic chemistry. To strengthen preparation of students for STEM careers, chemistry faculty at MSU-WP and UoK are revamping their research and laboratory courses by incorporating current “hot” and inspirational topics in guided-inquiry green chemistry, nanoscience, and natural products. The new courses will provide students with opportunities to learn innovative experimental techniques (chromatography, spectroscopy, bioassays, etc.). Bioassay data from structure-bioactivity relationship studies will be discussed. Also, reports summarizing professional development activities will be disseminated