Chemistry students in Martin lab contribute to published research about compounds used in drug development

Sara Martin, assistant professor of chemistry at The College of Wooster, and five undergraduate students in her chemistry lab recently published research that may help identify a more inexpensive and accessible way to make compounds used in drug discovery research. Martin and student coauthors Marisol Varela Ausec ’24, Mary K. Payne ’24, Jason R. Stewart ’24, Olivia M Galando ’25, and Eliott J. Wright ’23 published “A simple route to 7-substituted Quinolin-2(1H)-ones from Meta-substituted anilines” in Results in Chemistry in February 2025.

The research showed that quinolinones, a cyclic-structure compound that has both carbon and nitrogen atoms in its ring, “can be made with a specific substitution pattern that is hard to make with other synthetic methods using inexpensive and commercially available starting materials,” Martin said. Because larger molecules containing quinolinones have been shown to have anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-diabetic properties, “Being able to make these quinolinones may be useful to other chemists who are trying to develop drugs that fit specifically into the binding sites of certain disease-relevant enzymes,” she explained.

With the type of starting materials that were used, the reactions could lead to two different products. “We found that depending on the specific starting material used, the desired 7-substituted products were formed with almost complete selectivity over the undesired 5-substituted products. These results expand our understanding of this reaction method, which can now be used to make a variety of these unusual quinolinones, and our study revealed interesting trends that we are currently following up on in the lab,” Martin said.

She conducted preliminary proof of concept experiments to ensure the project was worth pursuing; however, most of the experiments for this paper were conducted by her students. Among her coauthors on the paper, Varela Ausec, Stewart, and Eliott conducted research as part of their Independent Study research projects, and Varela Ausec, Payne and Galando also worked with Martin over the summer through the Sophomore Research Program.

“The I.S. and Sophomore Summer Research Program are high-impact opportunities for students at Wooster,” Martin said. “Students benefit by learning more advanced laboratory skills and techniques than they have learned in lab courses. The hands-on skills are useful to those students who continue into graduate programs.” She noted that research at the lab bench produces failures, providing opportunities to learn how to overcome them through troubleshooting and continued experimentation, critical thinking, and perseverance. “Establishing a record of published research is important for career advancement,” Martin said. “It is a feather in students’ caps to have a publication from their undergraduate research.”

Varela Ausec, first coauthor and a chemistry major who is currently in the American Chemical Society Bridge program at the University of Wisconsin, was with the project from the beginning, conducting many of the reactions that were summarized in the publication. She credited Martin and the research conducted in her lab for introducing her to a higher level of synthesis than organic chemistry classes. “It helped with my identity as a chemist,” Varela Ausec said. “I was given the opportunity to mentor others in the lab, which not only solidified my own skills but also showed me that I like to help others learn how to do the chemistry I love to do.”

Working with Martin in the lab since 2022 and presenting at two National Organic Chemistry Symposiums, Varela Ausec gained confidence to ask questions and suggest new paths forward, in addition to presentation skills. “She taught me no matter how bad life is, any time spent in the lab is an improvement to the scientific community,” she said. “Because of Dr. Martin, I found my home in the lab.”

Other student coauthors including Stewart, a chemistry alumnus who is now a graduate student in the chemistry department at Ohio State University; Galando, a current biochemistry and molecular biology major; Payne, a biochemistry and molecular biology alumna, and Wright, a chemistry alumnus, contributed to the experiments, research methodology, or investigation for the research publication.

Pictured are co-authors, Olivia Galando ’25, Jason Stewart ’24, Spencer Gabriel ’24, Sara Martin (assistant professor of chemistry), Aileen Yeo ’24, and Marisol Varela Ausec ’24.

Posted in News on March 20, 2025.