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October 2007 The Faculty, Staff and Student Newspaper of the University of Richmond

Research and service
Campus AIDS researchers looking at two strains of virus

BY JOAN TUPPONCE

AIDS research
Francois Lottering (l.) and Ockert Jansen, filmmakers from Namibia, direct Greg Springsted, '10, during filming of an HIV/AIDS research documentary to be shown in prime time in their country.

Kendra Mon’ee Cunningham is determined to help fight the AIDS epidemic. That’s why the first-year biochemistry and molecular biology-mathematics major is excited to be working as a researcher with Dr. Carol Parish, associate professor of chemistry.

Parish has been studying HIV protease inhibitors (proteins) for 10 years. During that time, she has mentored 58 undergraduates, including students who have won one Rhodes, one Clarendon, one Gates-Cambridge and six Goldwater scholarships.

“Dr. Parish has the tremendous ability to interact, teach and incorporate all students, regardless of knowledge and skill level, into her research,” Cunningham says. “She took me under her wing and patiently taught me.”

Cunningham finds the work both challenging and rewarding. “I am receiving first-hand experience in a field that I want to pursue,” she says.

Parish’s curiosity led her to begin studying HIV proteins. While working on her post-doctoral fellowship at Columbia University, she met Nick Hodge of DuPont-Merck. He had published a paper about a small molecule contained in a drug that was in clinical trials for inhibiting the HIV-1 protein, responsible for the AIDS lifecycle.

“They didn’t have a good idea how that drug behaved at the molecular level,” Parish recalls, “so when I began my own independent research, I wanted to apply the tools I had to understand how this drug was so effective. I wanted to get an atomic picture of how the drug worked. That blossomed into a variety of projects related to AIDS research.”

Her work was published in a 2002 paper in the Journal of Molecular Graphics & Modeling. (In addition, Parish and her students have published eight papers on the behavior of anti-cancer and HIV drugs in the past five years.) Parish and her students now are working on a couple of projects that examine HIV proteins and will help develop new drugs that behave similarly or better than existing drugs in the presence of the protein.

“We use tools of mathematics and the laws of physics to simulate the motion of atoms in drugs and proteins,” Parish explains. “These laws are coded into computer algorithms that my students learn to use to simulate molecular behavior.

 “We hope to virtually screen huge libraries of compounds within the HIV-1 and HIV-2 proteases, which are vital in the assembly of the HIV-1 and HIV-2 viruses,” she explains. “It’s definitely a project that, with the ideal results, will make for excellent literature that can lead to even more pharmaceutical research concerning this novelty that drugs designed for one particular strain can serve as beneficial for the treatment of another strain.”

This research isn’t for the faint of heart. “It’s an intense effort,” Parish says. “You have to get results out as quickly as possible and as accurately as possible. You work hard.”

Parish is constantly conducting research. “If I don’t,” she says, “someone will scoop us, and I won’t get a grant to support my students. Research is very competitive. You have to make sure your discoveries are out there first, which will lead to more grant funding.”

During the past decade, Parish and her research group have established reliable ways to model complex molecules and have used them to understand and predict the atomistic behavior of drugs that are currently in use or in phase one clinical trials. They also are applying the methodologies to new drugs. The process takes time.

“My lab won’t produce a drug directly,” Parish says. “But the information we provide may help someone else synthesize a new drug for AIDS.”

Currently, Parish is working on a new project geared toward the HIV-2 protein, found in the virus in Africa. “HIV-2 is more virulent than HIV-1,” Parish explains. “They are seeing an explosion of AIDS in Africa like the United States saw 10 years ago.”

Less is known about the HIV-2 protein. “This project is very attractive to students,” Parish says. “They want to have an influence. They want to apply the science to the betterment of humankind.”

Parish’s work caught the attention of Francois Lottering and Ockert Jansen from Windhoek, Namibia (sister city to Richmond, Va.). The two received a grant from the U.S. Department of State to come to America and make a documentary on AIDS/HIV research. Parish’s lab is one of the sites filmed for the documentary that will air in primetime in Namibia.

During their visit, the filmmakers interviewed several of Parish’s students, including Cunningham and Greg Springsted, ’10.

“Dr. Parish’s research is both interesting and important to the medical field,” observes Springsted. “The project I am working on is fascinating and so important considering the current climate; HIV is constantly mutating and becoming resistant to medications. In order to continue to provide effective treatment to those infected with HIV, novel drugs must be discovered to inhibit the virus.”

Parish, who is in her third year of teaching at Richmond, has great appreciation for the students who work in her lab and for the Gottwald Center for the Sciences. “The students are amazingly bright and talented,” she says. “The center is as well equipped a scientific facility as any in the world.”

Dr. Carol Parish’s student researchers