Drug Development: Discovering a Novel Antibiotic

Groundbreaking cancer drug research is happening at pharmaceutical companies such as Acerta (a small pharmaceutical company owned partly by the large AstraZeneca) everyday. As I learned this summer, the process to bring the discovered drugs to market is quite lengthy, complex, and involves a great deal of communication and teamwork skills.

Cancer is a large problem in the world, and it is very important to develop drugs to help mitigate or cure it. Antibacterial and antiviral infections are also becoming increasingly fatal. However, many large pharmaceutical companies are choosing not to investigate antibiotic drugs because the commercial potential and return on investment is lower due to the fact bacteria are evolving resistance to the antibiotics so rapidly.

During a weeklong study in our biotech unit, I will teach my students about the drug development process that Acerta is going through to obtain widespread FDA approval of Acalabrutinub, its oncology drug. My students will also critically read an article to analyze the pros and cons of large pharmaceutical companies spending less time and money on developing antibiotics. Finally, my students will use the collaboration skills I have been observing this summer to work together to design their own experiments to test the more effective antibiotics on bacteria growth. They will then use their communication skills to present their findings to the class, which will serve as shareholders of our pharmaceutical company considering starting research on antibiotics.

This unit occurs in my IB SL biology class, a class that is part of the International Baccalaureate Program, before holiday break after the students have already learned about cells, cell differentiation, mitosis, and cancer growth (LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms, HS-LS1-4). Through previous labs throughout the year, they have also already covered many of the science and engineering practices: asking questions, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing data, and constructing explanations.