{"id":207107,"date":"2025-08-14T13:05:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T17:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chemistry-biochemistry\/?p=207107"},"modified":"2025-08-14T14:00:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T18:00:19","slug":"targeting-parasitic-dhfr-montclair-state-students-advance-antifolate-drug-discovery-for-lymphatic-filariasis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chemistry-biochemistry\/2025\/08\/14\/targeting-parasitic-dhfr-montclair-state-students-advance-antifolate-drug-discovery-for-lymphatic-filariasis\/","title":{"rendered":"Targeting Parasitic DHFR: Montclair State Students Advance Antifolate Drug Discovery for Lymphatic Filariasis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At the 2025 <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.njmicrobe.org\/spring-2025-symposium\" target=\"_blank\">Theobald Smith Society Spring Symposium<\/a>, graduate students David Otu-Aboagye and Salma Kwarteng\u00a0presented an engaging talk on their research into novel drug targets for lymphatic filariasis\u2014a neglected tropical disease that affects hundreds of millions globally.<\/p>\n<p>The parasite responsible for most cases of lymphatic filariasis is\u00a0<em>Wuchereria bancrofti<\/em>, a mosquito-transmitted nematode that causes severe swelling of limbs and tissue (elephantiasis) by invading the lymphatic system. Despite its enormous global health burden, treatment remains reliant on long-term preventive chemotherapy, which has significant compliance and efficacy challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Otu-Aboagye and Kwarteng\u2019s research focuses on\u00a0<em>W. bancrofti<\/em> dihydrofolate reductase (Wb DHFR), an essential enzyme for DNA synthesis and cell division, and a known drug target in other organisms. The goal is to identify antifolate compounds that selectively inhibit Wb DHFR without affecting the human version of the enzyme.<\/p>\n<p>The team expressed a His\u2086-tagged Wb DHFR construct in <em>E. coli<\/em>\u00a0LOBSTR cells, optimized for purifying histidine-tagged proteins. Following IPTG induction, they used a two-step purification process\u2014first with methotrexate-agarose resin, then with Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. Protein yield and purity were confirmed via Nanodrop and Bradford assays.<br \/>\n<span class=\"prpl-button\"><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.njmicrobe.org\/post\/targeting-parasitic-dhfr-montclair-state-students-advance-antifolate-drug-discovery-for-lymphatic-f\" target=\"_blank\">Read More About Their Research<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Watch David and Salma&#8217;s Presentation<\/h2>\n<p><iframe title=\"Video: Targeting Parasitic DHFR: Goody Lab Advances Antifolate Drug Discovery for Lymphatic Filariasis\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZucpL9G4ftA?feature=oembed\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen style=\"width: 500px; height: 375px; border: 0px solid #000;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Graduate students David Otu-Aboagye and Salma Kwarteng from Dr. Nina Goodey\u2019s Lab presented an engaging talk on their research into novel drug targets for lymphatic filariasis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":207108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,10,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grad","category-research","category-students-alumni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chemistry-biochemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chemistry-biochemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chemistry-biochemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chemistry-biochemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chemistry-biochemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207107"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chemistry-biochemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207111,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chemistry-biochemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207107\/revisions\/207111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chemistry-biochemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chemistry-biochemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chemistry-biochemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chemistry-biochemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}