It’s not uncommon for Adrian Nuñez ’27 to witness an array of vibrant chemical reactions in Biological and Biomedical Sciences Professor Chris Reid Ph.D.’s research lab, whether the undergrad is dissolving a substance into a solvent that produces a light pink that could pass as strawberry milk or testing a new reaction that causes the mixture of a clear liquid and a white, powdery substance to turn black.
“Those are things that escape you during a lecture or in written work,” says Nuñez, a Health Sciences major participating in the 10-week, paid Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program.
Nuñez, along with Luke Mead ’26, are the two SURF students in the Reid Lab this summer. The two main aspects of Nuñez’s job involve compound synthesis — constructing complex chemical compounds from simpler ones — and biological screening for antimicrobial activity. For the past seven weeks, he has used the lab’s newly established solid phase synthesis strategy to build the core of the antibiotic masarimycin to design a stronger and more effective version of the drug, including improved solubility and potency. One of the goals of his project is to find a spot on an inhibitor where Bryant researchers can attach a fluorophore — a type of molecule that glows when exposed to certain types of light. The fluorophore would allow them to watch how a specific protein moves and changes inside live bacteria as the bacteria grow and divide.
An average week in the lab begins with Nuñez starting a new synthesis and monitoring the reaction progress by mass spectrometry (a technique used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions). New compounds take several days to synthesize and, once complete, researchers must purify the compound and confirm its structure before starting biological tests.
Nuñez, who learned about the SURF Program through Reid, decided to take advantage of the opportunity since research and pharmaceuticals were career paths of interest to him. An international student from the Dominican Republic, Nuñez notes that science and math were his strongest subjects growing up, but there were limited opportunities to engage with science hands-on.
“Our labs in high school happened one day of the entire year, and our experiment was usually mixing water with dye. An experience like this is life-changing for me,” Nuñez says.
From presenting their current research at the ninth annual New England Glyco-Chemistry Symposium in mid-June to building connections with fellow researchers, the past two months have flown by.
In addition to Nuñez, Madison Lacroix ’26 and John Raycroft ’26 are working out of Assistant Professor of Psychology Kristin Scaplen Ph.D.’s lab while Lily Kimball ’27 and Ella Hewes ’28 work out of Assistant Professor of Biological and Biomedical Sciences Steven Weicksel Ph.D.’s lab. Following the summer research, Nuñez will continue working in the lab as part of a directed study, which will provide course credit for his Chemistry minor.
“It's one thing to sit in the lecture hall and see all the equations in front of you and run through hypothetical problems. It's a completely different thing to be in the lab, go through all the processes yourself, and see reactions take place in real life,” Nuñez says. “For instance, when you feel the vials suddenly heat up and realize that's an exothermic reaction, it's like, ‘Oh my god, it makes so much sense. But it's so shocking,’” Nuñez says.
