A middle schooler found a new compound in a piece of goose poop

[djoldman]

Published journal article: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.4c07459

From the abstract:

> ...one student isolated a Pseudomonas idahonensis bacterium from a goose feces sample that produced a new cyclic lipodepsipeptide, which .... was cytotoxic against human melanoma and human ovarian cancer cells with IC50 values of 11.06 and 10.50 μM, respectively.

[gilleain]

Huh, so a lipid tail and a mixed R/L cyclic peptide head which is cytotoxic? At a wild guess, perhaps it forms a pore in cell membranes?

[pfdietz]

That's a high concentration. Drugs are often effective in nM concentrations.

[mmiyer]

https://xkcd.com/1217/

[stuff4ben]

I'm so glad companies and in this case a university are reaching out to youth to get them excited in these fields. Just wish it was more widespread. Can you imagine being credited on a scientific paper while you're in middle school? I know they probably didn't do a lot of the hard work, but when you're that age, working with adults and being encouraged like that, I'm sure it's an amazing feeling.

[IG_Semmelweiss]

>>> I know they probably didn't do a lot of the hard work

Actually it looks some work was done and made the wrong finding , but there was serepindity involved in finding a new thesis along the way:

> (student sample) contained a strain of bacteria called Pseudomonas idahonensis. The students interpreted the

> bacterium's bioassay data and concluded it had antibiotic activity and produced a never-before-seen compound.

> Then, the university researchers determined the compound's molecular structure using nuclear magnetic

> resonance and mass spectrometry, named it orfamide N after the family of molecules it belongs to, and investigated its biological activity. Although orfamide N was not responsible for the antibiotic activity that the team initially observed from P. idahonensis, the compound inhibited the growth of human melanoma and ovarian cancer cells in culture tests.

So if i read the above correctly, it seems like the students identified a new compound to do A, scientists took that new compound and tested for A, then after scientists realized it did B instead of A.

[ericmcer]

It would be weird to find such success at such a young age. Same thing with young athletes/musicians. It must be bizarre to be so celebrated when you have so little autonomy and your consciousness is barely online.

[tetris11]

there are many citizen science projects out there

[benjijay]

It's that old adage once again... throw enough goose shit at the wall and eventually you'll treat cancer.

[bitwize]

It's just my little goose poop... you don't know what I got!

[dudeinjapan]

And to think, all these years I used to get mad at geese for pooping all over my yard. Little did I know they were trying to save me from melanoma.

[ronald_raygun]

geese are excellent gaurdian animals

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_goose

[echelon]

Another Google Gemini gaffe for "depsipeptide" [1].

> A depsipeptide is a cyclic peptide where one or more amide groups are replaced by ester groups.

Depsipeptides are not necessarily cyclic, and I'd prefer to use "bond" instead of "group", though both are fine.

I am hitting so many of these every day. They're crazy. Hallucinations that companies are headquartered in the wrong states, incorrect math and statistics, and even outright wrong health advice.

[1] https://imgur.com/a/YslvJO2

[erikerikson]

"De-pepsi-cide"

Advocating for removing the platform from people who are advocating puncturing of sodas. Ideally from atop a bicycle.

/misreading-for-the-fun

[Uptrenda]

To me it seems like magic that we possess the ability to analyse the structure of a chemical sample and then synthesize it. That is real life alchemy.

I know about some of these technologies for analysing samples. But they're all expensive as far as I know. E.g. I think home labs still use things like reagents / color change tests to get an idea if a synthesis succeeded. I wonder if there are any ways to do chemical analysis that are cheap though?

[m3kw9]

Goose poop as cream for your sun spots gonna be on sale soon at your natralpathic store?

[kikokikokiko]

Ain't that where Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP name came from? I'm pretty sure it is.

[otterley]

   Little goose poop
   You don't know what I got (you don't know what I got)
   Little goose poop
   You don't know what I got

   Well I'm not bragging babe, so don't put me down (goose poop)
   But I've got the strongest antibiotic in town (goose poop)
   When superbugs come up to me, they don't even try (goose poop)
   'Cause once they meet my compound, man, they're gonna die

(Apologies to the Beach Boys)

[nyc_data_geek1]

(goose)Shit like this is exactly why failing to account for the negative externalities associated with anthropogenic biosphere collapse is so utterly shortsighted and will ultimately be the death of us all. Every extinction is potentially a loss of knowledge we can't even conceive of yet, and how many medical advancements come from the flora and fauna of the Earth?

[card_zero]

That doesn't add up, we're not dependent on medical innovations for human survival. They're just nice to have. But we got this far as a species and expanded into the billions even while enduring all kinds of cancer and leprosy and cholera and syphilis and measles and whatever.

[kevindamm]

If we're taking that view, it's only fair to account for the # unique deaths as well.

[butlike]

> One unique sample, goose poop collected at a local park, had a bacterium that showed antibiotic activity and contained a novel compound that slowed the growth of human melanoma and ovarian cancer cells in lab tests.

The goose that laid the golden egg.

[hahahacorn]

Can’t help but read “it’s a nothing burger” in between each paragraph, but I love this story all the same.

Props to Murphy and his team for developing an awesome program.

[gus_massa]

I hate when the press article exagerate the participation of the students, but in this case the press article is fine.

We have(had?) a similar project in our university. Students of high school (17yo?) go once per week for a semenster and help with some project. In some topics is possible to isolate the work and make an interesting task that can be teached and tried in one semester. Nobody expect a groundbreaking result, but it's an interesting aproach to encourage students.

[ronald_raygun]

Kids these days are still getting all the shit jobs in the cool science labs.