Interview with Dr. Steven Townsend from Vanderbilt University covering his career path and current work leveraging organic chemistry and an interdisciplinary approach to understand the chemistry of human milk.
Human milk provides both nutritional and non-nutritional components tailored to the specific need of the infant at all phases of growth. It is a wonderful example of personalised medicine and diet and its complexity is only partially understood. The oligosaccharides contained in breastmilk have only recently emerged as potent pro- and anti-biotics and they are proven to have effects on several other physiological mechanisms and biological pathways, such as the immune system.
We discuss with Dr. Townsend, a leading scientist in this field, about these special carbohydrates’ properties, about their chemistry and the challenges of running ambitious multidisciplinary research at the interface between chemistry and biology.
Dr. Townsend takes us on a surprising journey of personal development and scientific progress that could lead to a revolution in nutrition, the design of novel antimicrobial and antifungal drugs and even re-think contraception.
Steve Townsend 0:06
We were walking through Harlem. And she was pregnant at the time, we saw posters that were advertising formula. We saw the posters that were advertising breastfeeding. The genesis of this project really was, I think, a humanist sort of perspective. Or we're just trying to figure out, why is there a debate about how we feed a baby?
Paolo Braiuca 0:27
That question is what spurred Dr. Steven Townsend's award winning research on human milk, and help landing on Chemical and Engineering News 2019 Talented 12 a list of brilliant young scientists taking on some of the world's toughest problems with clever chemistry. In this six part Science with a Twist series, which we're calling Bringing Chemistry to Life, we'll speak with a selection of the talented 12 about the work and trend in their fields. I'm your host, Paolo Braiuca, Senior Manager of global market development at Thermo Fisher Scientific. We began by asking Dr. Townsend, assistant professor of chemistry at Vanderbilt University, about his career path, starting out as a first generation college student in Detroit, to working with some of the biggest names in the chemical field.
Steve Townsend 1:15
I am the oldest of five kids, I grew up in a single parent home in Detroit. One thing that's pretty interesting, though, is that I'm actually the oldest person in my generation. So I have no older siblings, no older cousins. So you can imagine the sort of like superiority complex that accompanies being the oldest. So you know, as a kid, you know, I was an athlete, big time into football and basketball into track. But I also really love science a great deal as a kid. You know, I always tell the story that when I was in elementary school, you know, my mom was looking for different literature on black scientists, because she wanted to hand me a role model that I could sort of, you know, model my behavior after, she actually had a hard time finding very many books on black chemists. So for her, she did the next best thing. She got me a bunch of literature on Louis pasture. Sorry, remember, you know, in the fourth grade writing this essay about how I wanted it to be like Louis Pasteur. The teachers thought I plagiarize this thing that my mom wrote it. My mom came to my defense, like, trust me, I'm not writing any essays on Louis Pasteur. But that was sort of the beginning. Right? You know, I was just a kid who loves science. I went to a math and science type of high school and you trade study chemistry as a grad student, as an undergraduate as well. And then, you know, from the janiszewski Lab just really got deep into applying chemistry to biology problems.
Paolo Braiuca 2:37
It's great. If I look at your early publications from from the Danishefski days, you know, you see a lot of hardcore, organic syntheses, you know, mechanistic, organic synthesis. How did you transition to this carbohydrate chemistry work that you started doing later?
Steve Townsend 2:52
Carbohydrates have always been there. So you know, when I was an undergrad, I actually did three years worth of nucleoside synthesis. I got away from carbohydrates when I was a grad student, because I focused mostly on terpene synthesis. And then, within the context of terpene synthesis, we were doing photo chemistry. And this was before photo chemistry became cool again. So I was taking off the big giant lamps blinding Everybody in the lab trying to do reactions. But going back to the Dennis jetski group, I basically just went in there with open eyes, and did any project that he asked me to do. And that was pretty tricky, because with Professor Danishefski, that means that there's going to be somewhere between three and 45 different ideas per day. And most of these ideas are going to be good. And you're like, what do you want me to do? And he doesn't know what he wants you to do, because he's just constantly generating ideas. So what happens, you know, ultimately, that means that I do some mechanistic chemistry. I did some glyco protein synthesis and carbohydrate synthesis. And I realized that we didn't have enough carbohydrate synthetic chemists in the country. So that's what I wanted to start out with, at least for part of the group, when we started at Vanderbilt.
Paolo Braiuca 3:58
Synthesizing the oligo and polysaccharides is is really known as being quite challenging chemistry from the synthetic analytical point of view. Do you think he was at Danishefski group give you some sort of edge, some sort of different perspective to the chemical problems you can encounter there?
Steve Townsend 4:14
Yeah, that there's no question. So you know, if you go back to the old German literature, they usually consider carbohydrates as the second most difficult class of molecules to make. And this is after alkaloids, which is considered the most difficult. So I think the benefit of being in a data heavy lab was that, you know, you have chemists worldwide, from China, from India, from Japan, from the States. You know, I met a glycoprotein chemists from Paris. So I think, you know, you're bringing the world's greatest scientists together, and you can learn from everyone. And so, you know, as a graduate student, you know, my anhydrous technique was not good. When you're doing total synthesis, right? You're just pounding through and trying to get as much material as possible, but I really learned how to get things dry. Not was at the Dennis st lab, because two chemists paying into a taught me about anhydrous technique and how you can do carbohydrate chemistry if you can't get things dry. So I think the collection of talent that was just present in the lab, it really sets you up for the future in a way that is pretty unique to that system.
Paolo Braiuca 5:18
So you seem to be very smart in making the most out of the connections. And the you know, the knowledge around you and the people you you work with in the lab, and also you collaborate with, with in from different labs, am I am I right?
Steve Townsend 5:31
Oh, that's right, you know, in a way I consider myself a humanist. So when I was an undergrad, I took as many classes in sociology as I did chemistry, because I love human beings. I love game theory, I love interacting with other people. And so I think that there's a real power in leveraging connections and leveraging each other's knowledge. I have a specific skill set. And I can apply that to a lot of problems. But there's far more things that I can't do. You don't have to do everything. There are people who are experts in fields that you need. If you come together, you can do something powerful.
Paolo Braiuca 6:04
And it's interesting, because probably your most popular line of work is around the human milk oligosaccharides, which is really interdisciplinary, isn't it? We need to start from there. Right. And this is what won your consideration for the 2012 program. And obviously, there's a lot of fantastic papers that are read, you seem to be developing a lot of knowledge with some incredible potential there's so effect on gut microbiome, anti microbial activities, affects the immune system. There's a lot there. I guess we should start from the idea. Is it really true that you were inspired by some formula advertising?
Steve Townsend 6:43
Oh, yeah, this is totally true. You know, my wife and I, she had just finished graduate school at Columbia. I was finishing up my postdoc, and we were walking through Harlem. And she was pregnant at the time, we saw posters that were advertising formula, we saw the posters that were advertising breastfeeding, we started to think, you know, one, is there any strategy behind the placement of these posters? Right? Are we promoting different ways to feed a human being to different people, maybe based on how they look at how much money they make? And it turns out that in a way we were, the genesis of this project really was, I think, a humanist sort of perspective, where we're just trying to figure out, why is there debate about how we feed a baby, it seems like there's, you know, one gold standard, it should be easy to adopt that across all people. But you know, not so fast. It's a very controversial topic. And it's not that simple.
Paolo Braiuca 7:33
And so the many different lines of detour of that research going into the gut microbiome, or going into Monte microbials, or whatever else is coming out for that fantastic work, is it? You know, what do you foresee as being the best, or the highest potential future application in real life application?
Steve Townsend 7:53
So the graduate students in lab, they usually make fun of me, because I make fun of Professor Danishefski, for having 45 ideas per day. And they tell me, if he has 45, you probably have 10, or 15. If we think about what these molecules do at their core, right, because we take them in a lot of directions. But what they really are built for is to feel good bacteria, and in a way to kill bad bacteria. So I think that a coming project out of the lab, where we're actually using these molecules to prevent colitis, and the gut inflammation of the gut, is going to be a really, I think, a unique application and one that can be applied to people that are not babies, because we have some really cool data, it should be out in the next nine to 12 months, that demonstrates that we can prevent things like Crohn's disease in a mouse model, by feeding mice, human milk oligosaccharides
Paolo Braiuca 8:44
Do you see future applications of these compounds on mix of these compounds in future drugs?
Steve Townsend 8:50
You know, I do, I think it's gonna take a while to get there. So if we look at where we're at, now, there's a single compound to prime, you could still lactose to prime FL. And that's being added to a lot of infant food products. So so that's good, you know, we want to start getting HMOs into all products for all babies. The problem, though, is that mother's milk is really personalized for her baby. And so we could get in the scenario where we're feeding babies to prime FL, even though their mom doesn't make it. Right. And so I think that there's a lot of the puzzle that we need to unravel before we can really get excellent use of these compounds, because we really need to know which molecules are most important for What baby? And then how do we get that into a personalized formula for that specific child?
Paolo Braiuca 9:34
So these days, when does it also speaking around personalized medicine mums should be the model to go off to?
Steve Townsend 9:40
I think mom absolutely is the model. Because if we can personalize formula, right, then there's a chance that we don't destroy breast milk. You know, one of my big fears is that we could possibly harm or destroy breast milk by misusing these compounds. But as you were saying, you know, we can personalize every formula that we make, based on mom's design. Then there's a chance that we won't go down that bad pathway.
Paolo Braiuca 10:04
How much do we understand there? So when when we speak about breast milk being sort of personalized to the kids phase or needs? Do you mean that every batch of mom's milk is really different in the composition of HMOs? and other components? And how much do we understand that? How does it work?
Steve Townsend 10:23
Yeah, we understand very little, it might be less than five or 10%. And we have known for a long time that over the course of lactation, so from, say, zero months to two years, we know that the composition changes pretty rapidly. But there's growing evidence, you know, we have it in our own lab through analytical chemistry mass spectrometry data, that shows that over a single lactation, the composition of milk changes. So a baby is nursing for 15 or 20 minutes, the HMOs that are present at the beginning are not the same ones at the end. why that is, and why mom changes the design, we still don't know yet. And I think that's sort of a key link, and being able to apply these compounds for human health and wellness.
Paolo Braiuca 11:04
It's interesting, and there's a lot of biological work there. And yet, you're an organic chemist. So it's, I'm fascinated by this, and I was reading your literature, and I found an interesting statement in your paper, on accounts of chemical research in 2019. Let me read it, it's at the beginning of your abstract, you say something like that. "This account describes the risky proposition of organizing a multidisciplinary team to interrogate a challenging problem in Chemical Biology, which is characterizing how human milk at the molecular level protect infants from infectious diseases." There's a lot of interesting concepts in the statement, but I like to go to the beginning: "the risky proposition of organizing a multidisciplinary team". So chemists and biologists don't really speak the same language do they?
Steve Townsend 11:54
Oh we're not on the same page at all biologists, they think small, because they think at the micro level, chemists think smaller, where the level of elements. So when we get together, there's a lot of miscommunication. You know, at least when we started our program, there was an inability to formulate a hypothesis that we both understood that chemists and biologists both knew what we were trying to get after. But those are small barriers, because the more you communicate, the easier project, those become defined. The easiest, you can develop hypotheses, you can move forward. But I think anyone who organizes a team in this manner where you have people from different fields is absolutely going to be bumpy. Just because we all think differently. I have colleagues in microbiology who thought that no one could think smaller than they do at an atomic level, until they started working with chemists who actually think about splitting atoms.
Paolo Braiuca 12:46
How did you overcome these challenges? Do you have a trick to share?
Steve Townsend 12:50
So I'm always a person who likes to, you know, the quote is like, stay in your own lane. My expertise is in synthetic organic chemistry I make and break bots. I have who I think is the world's best collaborator, and Professor Jen Gaddy, who is an excellent microbiologist. And she's an expert in single electron microscopy. And so when it comes to doing chemistry, where there's for my projects for her or for hers, she trust that I can get the job done. And I think similarly, when it comes to doing microbiology, I just trust that she can get the job done. You know, she trains my students in microbiology, I train her students in chemistry, and the students try to teach me a little bit, you know, I'm 37. Now, so it doesn't work that well. But I think experts are experts in their field, and that we can all work together, ultimately, with the goal of learning from each other and trading skill sets. But you just let people who are experts be experts in their field,
Paolo Braiuca 13:46
How'd you come with the idea of developing the general direction of the research problem? Because you said, You're a chemist, and you're an expert in making and breaking bonds. And there are biologists who are experts in their own niche. But here, you need to merge different perspectives and potentially objectives into a sort of bigger vision for it. I'm fascinated by that. You know, it sounds like a very challenging thing to do.
Steve Townsend 14:11
Yeah. So you know, one of my role models was Professor David Gin, the late professor David Gin. And I think he was excellent at merging very complex organic chemistry with very interesting biology. So I knew that when I started my independent career, I wanted to do the same. And the way that we were able to do that was by going to a meeting about preventing adverse pregnancy outcomes. So there's a group at Vanderbilt where specific senior investigators hold these meetings where they want to bring people from all fields together, under one umbrella. Here I am with a couple of my graduate students at this meeting on pregnancy, we start to learn about Group B strep. One thing that really stood out was that babies who drink formula are at an increased risk for developing Group B strep, even though formulas sterile babies that are breastfed are to reduce risk of developing Group B strep disease, even though Group B strep is present in a lot of mother's milk. So to us that was a chemical connection in this really interesting biological problem that they were addressing. So that's how we formulated our first team, we saw an interesting chemistry solution to a biological problem that they had. And we all got united to solve the problem.
Paolo Braiuca 15:22
It sounds like the scientific culture at Vanderbilt is nurturing this kind of approach. Is that true?
Steve Townsend 15:28
Oh, it's mandatory. You know, I interviewed that a couple of places. And Vanderbilt was the only place that I interviewed at where I sat down with the provost at the university. And he said, this is not a place where we work in isolation. at Vanderbilt, you're expected to solve bigger problems, problems that are bigger than yourself, Provost McCarthy at the time, he said, I would love to see you use chemistry to solve food security. How can you do that? I was like, I don't know how I can do that. But I can do something else in chemistry. That's right. That's multidisciplinary.
Paolo Braiuca 16:00
It seems like the most exciting research is really going on between interfaces, are the interfaces between different disciplines. He doesn't he tried chemistry in biology is one you're working to, but there might be others. And if I think about the perception of chemistry, I think it is somehow these days perceived as a discipline where there's literally innovation going on, while biology is is booming. There's there's a lot of different niches in biology is that where the innovation in progress is massive and very fast. Why probably the interface is a more interesting area. What's your opinion on that?
Steve Townsend 16:38
I love the idea of using chemistry to solve challenging problems in other areas. And you can create and develop challenging thought provoking chemistry while you're solving thought provoking biological problems. People like Jen pressure at UC Irvine, you know, Laura Keasling, at MIT, these are great examples of people who leverage very powerful chemistry to solve really cool problems in other areas. So yeah, I think that, you know, as we move forward, more and more chemists really do need to move to interfaces with other areas, because we have awesome tools that other areas don't have. And we can really address really neat problems.
Paolo Braiuca 17:16
Thinking about chemistry and biologists and chemists and biologists together, you still make a lot of your oligos in the lab in vitro, right? While nature does things in a possibly different way, and very often coming up with very complex products that are mixtures of different oligomers. Do you think the chemical methods can still compete with the nature methods of making making oligos or do you see these more of a synergy?
Steve Townsend 17:47
So it has to be a synergy. So if we project for it, right, 25 years from now, my hope is that we are still having to synthesize very complex oligosaccharides. There are compounds that we don't want to make synthetically, but we have to because the enzymatic and chemoenzymatic methodologies, they aren't able to produce molecules at the level of complexity that we need. But you know, absolutely, at some point, I should be able to go to a pool of eco ly or some yeast, and have them make the compound for me. And then maybe I right, do some last minute manipulations. So so we're not there yet. And that's one of the prime reasons that we are still doing a lot of heavyweight, synthetic organic chemistry. But we will be there at some point where, you know, hopefully not be making these complex molecules in lab.
Paolo Braiuca 18:34
So the future of this chemistry is synthetic biology and microbial fermentation.
Steve Townsend 18:39
Absolutely, I think so. And so you know, to prime FL is a good example, that's it just to try saccharide, but no one synthesizes that that's made through fermentation. Now, if you go a little bit more complex than that molecule, the methodologies just aren't there. And I know because I looked for them yesterday. So there's, you know, three compounds that we desperately need for some mechanistic work that we're doing. And you know, if I want to buy 50 milligrams of any of these compounds, it's going to cost me 80 $500. And so we can make the molecules cheaper than that. And we can make more of it. Right. So so that's where we're at, right? We said we were, the future is going to lie with fermentation and manipulating bacteria. And hopefully it gets there fast, but it's not here yet.
Paolo Braiuca 19:25
And despite that, despite the future been microbial fermentation, you think there's a lot to learn or a lot to change for the synthetic approach for these compounds. From the way nature does it.
Steve Townsend 19:37
Yeah, you know, nature is extraordinarily selective. moreso with proteins and carbohydrates, carbohydrates are genetically guided to a very strict level. But yeah, I think when it comes to synthesis, you know, we can be much more selective, you know, if we can build building blocks, monosaccharide building blocks to have five different protecting groups. If we can make those five steps. That's a Nobel Prize type of accomplishment. So yeah, I think if we can start to get glycosylation under control a bit more, if we can take a little bit of the ambiguity and the guessing game out of carbohydrate synthesis, and be a little bit, you know, neater, just like nature is will come a long way.
Paolo Braiuca 20:17
Will we see any more war from you on total synthesis of non carbohydrates? Or do you think carbohydrate is going to be your future?
Steve Townsend 20:24
You know, so that's a tricky question, because I love all molecule I love terpenes. You know, he asked me, what's my favorite class of molecules and their terpenes. But there's just so much to do in carbohydrate chemistry, that I feel like we're going to be there for a while. But you will see some non carbohydrate work from us, but not in the way you may think. So, one project is starting lab. It was inspired by Gilbert Stuart, we talked about it in a hallway when I was a postdoc, but it's this idea of using carbohydrates and the stereochemistry. Yes, imbedded in carbohydrates to access non carbohydrate molecules that are inaccessible from any other reaction. That's one thing that we're trying to do now, you know, we're looking at carbohydrates, we're trying to figure out how can we convert a carbohydrate into a terpene carbohydrate to an alkaloid? Just really leveraging stereochemistry, that isn't sugars in a way that, you know, maybe we've done it in the past, but not at a very powerful level, as a community.
Paolo Braiuca 21:20
You mentioned a lot of influences for your own development as a scientist, but they they weren't scientists, I think at least they have understood. So many scientists, I know, get inspiration from other fields. And of course, you have been brave in exploring biology. And obviously, you're very good at collaborating and communicating with scientists from coming from different backgrounds. But is there any other form of inspiration for you, which is not necessarily strictly scientific?
Steve Townsend 21:48
Absolutely. So you know, one thing about me, that many people don't know is that I'm a big fan of psychological thrillers. So I try to, you know, up my pace due to the pandemic, so about every three days, I've read a different novel. And so again, I love humanists. And so I think other inspiration, people like Malcolm X, you know, Huey Newton, I love people who lead in other areas that are not science, because everything that they done is applicable to how we have to do chemistry. I have a lot of friends who are not scientists, people who are sociologists, anthropologists, a lot of friends in English, a buddy in the math department, right, I can find commonality with anyone, you know, whether it's Malcolm X and some stuff that he may have written in the 60s? Or is, you know, my friend, Greg, who is a security guard at my two year olds daycare, just try to connect with people, you know, regardless of what their occupation is.
Paolo Braiuca 22:46
And I, you know, as we're coming up towards the end of our chat, which has been very, very inspiring to me, I like to get your view on the current chemical market, do you find it easy to source starting materials, which you need with a lot of innovation going on in your field? like things like the agent or ability to essentially have the right quality for what you're really doing? Would you see the need for any improvement in the market to facilitate what you do?
Steve Townsend 23:14
It's actually your first question, you know, we do see the quality of reagents and compounds that we need. But I think one thing that's tricky, especially for the students, because they're the ones who do all the purchasing, but it's just the disparity in prices. So you have some companies, where I can get, you know, a kilo of xylose, for $50. But if you go to another company, a kilos, ilos might cost you 2500. So I think the disparity and costs, it actually limits the amount of suppliers that we can go through the standards of excellence, when it comes to producing good chemicals has really risen in 2020, that there's not too much difference between each company, but the prices are insane, the price differences.
Paolo Braiuca 23:57
Thank you. That's that's obviously an extremely important comment and a great feedback that I take home and ensuring that, you know, we look at as an organization, besides pricing is that anything that you believe, suppliers in the market could do better to support your research.
Steve Townsend 24:14
So I teach a graduate course, every four hours, structures, mechanisms and reactions. And when I teach students about reactions, I teach them how to run the reaction. And one thing I always tell them and it's a sad comment to have to make, but is that you don't trust what's on the bottle from the company. So good example is say, em butyl lithium, you buy that as a solution. You know, it always lies on the bottom and tells you that it's 1.8 molar or 2.5 molar. And I tell the students you know you, you know, it's sad to say but you can't trust a company because I titrate these bottles, and I get anywhere from 0.6 to 18 molar. So I think there has to be an increase for a lot of companies and quality control, so that students can trust That was on this label is actually what's in a bottle.
Paolo Braiuca 25:03
Thank you. That's great. And it can have serious implication for safety, particularly when you handle pyrophoric compounds like beauty lithium or things like that. Oh, absolutely. Is there a one piece of advice you'd pass to a young scientist or chemist? Just starting their career?
Steve Townsend 25:18
Yes, I have to ask for help. So when I started out, I wrote some of the worst proposals ever, for grants, some of the worst papers. And it actually shocked me a bit because I'm a person who, you know, the sheer volume of literature that I've read, I thought that I had a good handle on writing, whether it was a paper or grant neither. Neither was true. So I would say that, you know, you should ask for help, because universally in this community, I've seen people just willing to help me. You know, I can't think of an example where I've asked someone to read a grant or paper before it goes out. And they said, No. Um, so I think that you have to ask for help. You know, this is a job where we take the idea of being an independent researcher a bit too serious. The second piece of advice is to take care of your health. I'm telling everybody who I possibly can about this. I'm 37. I'm a guy who, you know, I've been able to dunk a basketball since I was 14, and I'm only five foot 10. And so I thought I was in phenomenal shape. But I go to the doctor for my 37th birthday checkup. And she tells me that my blood pressure was high cholesterol, high sugar, high fats are high. And I told her I didn't understand because I feel great. But she says, Sure, everyone feels great until right, something happens. So I've been on a massive health kick during the pandemic, loss, I guess, 30 pounds or so running a lot more than I used to just really watching what I eat. And I think people just really should take care of your health, don't let Google or Yahoo search, be your doctor, go to the actual physician.
Paolo Braiuca 26:51
That's a great comment to you. I mean, we should all take care of our Corona belly that we have developed in the last few months. I guess. The final question for me is that any other thoughts or comments, it would be patience for you or you're resisting to share?
Steve Townsend 27:05
I think operating at the the sort of nexus of multiple fields is really important and cool. And it allows you to solve or attempt to solve some really interesting problems. One thing that you can look forward to from our group in the future is that, you know, the milk project is got us to where we are now, the students who drove that project are phenomenal thinkers, and you're going to see them, you know, branch off into their own independent careers pretty shortly, you know, that makes me happy. It also makes me sad, because they're going to basically be coming after me and replaced what I do. But that's okay. You train your students to become your future competitors, and you help them compete against you. It's a cool process that actually like, but we have the HMO project, but we have other projects that are operating at the interfaces with other fields. One that's really cool is this idea of is it possible to change the way we think about birth control. So this is our next big topic, what we're trying to do is design molecules that are both selective and spermicidal. Right, so they can kill sperm. But they're also able to kill specific sexually transmitted infections. So in more crude terms, perhaps we call it a condom in a pill. But is it possible to provide a single medication that can maybe eradicate trichomonas, but also prevent pregnancy? You know, these are sort of the really big things that we're trying to think about the lab. And it's all because you know, we're organic chemists who really don't know what we can't do in biology. And then we have biologists who are like, Well, yeah, maybe you can do this in biology, but they don't know how to do it on the chemistry side. So we come together, and we can address these really sort of innovative problems.
Paolo Braiuca 28:42
So we need to keep a look out there for some progress in this field. That sounds like another extremely exciting line of research from you guys.
Steve Townsend 28:49
I think it's gonna be a fun one, you know, if you think worldwide about the number of women who want birth control, but can't get access to it, not because of availability, but because maybe it's the law in their country, this can make a really big inroad to that area. And then on the opposite side of the coin, you know, one of my students came in and was like, did you know that 1 million people per day contract a sexually transmitted infection? And I did not know that. That is a lot of people. I think these are two areas, right? That if you can merge them together, you can really come up with something big
Paolo Braiuca 29:23
Is it just gonna be linked to the oligosaccharide chemistry or are we speaking about a completely different part?
Steve Townsend 29:28
Yes. So these it is all even saccharide chemistry. These are not human milk oligosaccharides but they are what what I would call a glyco conjugate, right, so carbohydrate connected to another type of molecule.
Paolo Braiuca 29:40
So it is true that the carbohydrate chemistry is gonna keep you busy for the foreseeable future.
Steve Townsend 29:45
Oh, it's gonna pay the bills. And you know, what's cool? Again, like I said at the beginning of this question, is that you know, the training environment our lab is really encouraging people to think about how they can leverage the power of carbohydrate chemistry to solve biological problems. we're ever going to see a generation of thinkers who are far more powerful than I am. I'm more just going to do extraordinary work.
Paolo Braiuca 30:11
That was Dr. Steven Townsend, assistant professor of chemistry at Vanderbilt University, and one of the Chemical and Engineering News' Talented 12. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Bringing Chemistry to Life. Our science with the three series will bring you more conversations with a talented 12 every other week. For new episodes, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and you can visit labchemresources.com for more information about Thermo Fisher Scientific laboratory chemicals. This episode was produced by Matt Ferris, Gabriel Orama and Emma-Jean Weinstein.