OHIO News | Myers Probes New Ways to Focus in on Antibiotic Resistance

Mason Myers

“Ohio University student Mason Myers, a senior chemistry major in the Honors Tutorial College (HTC) and recently named Goldwater Scholar, has been researching ways on how to focus in on molecules in regards to antibiotic resistance research,” reports Ohio University News in a story headlined “OHIO Goldwater student’s research shows new ways to focus in on antibiotic resistance.”

His research looks at how to more efficiently determine how well certain molecules target specific regions in RNA sequences.

“When you are looking at finding a medical treatment, you want to make sure it hits the target that you want it to hit and nowhere else. Whether that is in the bacteria or the cells, you want to make sure it is very particular, that is to say high specificity,” Myers said.

Myers looks at small molecule-binding to the T-box riboswitch in order to find molecules that very accurately and strongly impact just that region of RNA. The riboswitch is also prevalent in Gram-positive bacteria. Some examples of this include Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus bacteria, or more commonly known as staph and strep, that can cause a variety of infections.

Recently, drug-resistant infections have become more prevalent, with a greater percentage of these infections becoming an issue in the past two decades, Myers explained. “Gram-positive bacterial infections have become a greater issue in the past couple of years because there are strains of both that are now becoming resistant to normal antibiotics,” he said.

Myers conducts his research in the lab of his mentor Dr. Jennifer Hines, chemistry and biochemistry professor, which is focused on drug discovery.

“Mason started in my research group the summer before starting college. I typically give undergraduate students in my lab their own individual research project that is a piece of the larger puzzle of trying to specifically target medicinally-relevant RNA structures,” Hines said. “Mason dove right in to his very interdisciplinary project. It has been great to see his research and science professional skills develop over the years.”

Read more in Ohio University News.

Jennifer Hines, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Ohio University, is studying RNA riboswitches as a possible new approach to kiling harmful bacteria.