by Urooj Ali
Agnes Scott College’s Insherah Qazi, scientist, activist, and student, spends her summer days researching an alternative to current anti-inflammatory drugs. Day in and day out, Qazi and her fellow scholars gather in the Bullock Science Center to test the relationship between an enzyme that indicates inflammation and pain in the body, COX-2, and over 900 million natural molecules sourced from the ZINC-15 database.
Qazi’s passion for accessible healthcare brought her to Yakini Brandy, Ph.D.’s research cohort.Growing up in Arkansas, Insherah witnessed injustice all around her. From the looming threat of gun violence to the mistreatment of factory workers, Qazi noticed the inequities that her community faced. As a mentee under Dr. Aisha Adamu MD, she met patients suffering with chronic illnesses caused by their grueling jobs that left them with no time or money to focus on their health. As Qazi interacted with more patients, she observed that Black and Brown communities experienced significant barriers to accessing quality healthcare compared to other communities.
At the same time, gun violence in schools skyrocketed. Her love for people and fervor for justice sprung her into action and she joined an activist group called Students Demand Action. Through advocacy, she realized the significant correlation between public health and gun violence. Qazi wanted to change the world and thought about becoming a lawyer, but it didn’t feel right to her. Instead, she followed her love for STEM and went to Agnes Scott College, where she’s studying economics and mathematics. She still wanted to connect her studies to public health and activism. So, she added a minor in Chemistry. She hopes to go to medical school.
Insherah discovered a natural affinity for organic chemistry, taught by Brandy, while many students found the subject intimidating. Despite battling imposter syndrome, she decided to apply for Brandy’s summer research team. Motivated by the potential for significant medical breakthroughs, setting aside her doubts, Qazi eagerly applied even though she wasn’t a Chemistry major like most of the other applicants.
Due to Qazi’s exceptional performance in the class, Brandy admitted her to the program. “Any student that shows an interest in chemistry, and has the skills to carry out the research, I will gladly open the doors for them to increase their knowledge and skills on the subject.” Brandy stated when asked about Insherah’s placement in the program.
Qazi’s clear excellence in chemistry coupled with her passion for accessible healthcare creates the perfect environment for her to make real contributions to issues faced by marginalized communities. Communities of color have higher rates of chronic illness and premature death than white communities.1 Many chronic illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease lead to increased inflammation in the body, and NSAIDs, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, are the current treatment for this, and long term use just leads to more health complications. This research could significantly reduce the negative long term effects of NSAIDs.
As a member of the summer cohort, Insherah works late into the night with her team conducting computational research in order to find an alternative to NSAIDs, like ibuprofen (Advil) and naproxen (Aleve). The research tends to be tedious and extremely fragile. On Maestro, a molecular modeling software, the researchers create a grid and prepare the protein, COX-2, as well as a molecule selected from the ZINC-15 database. Both the protein and the molecule must go through the preparation process in order to ensure that they are in the optimal conditions for docking. Docking is the process of placing the selected molecule into the protein pocket of COX-2. Once docking has been completed, Maestro creates a ROC plot that indicates the affinity of the selected molecule with COX-2. The closer the ROC plot value is to two, the higher the chance that the selected molecule could be a COX-2 inhibitor, bringing the team that much closer to finding the best possible alternative to NSAIDs.
Studies show that long term use of NSAIDs can lead to stomach irritation, ulcers, and gastrointestinal bleeding because they inhibit both COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes in the body. COX-1 regulates kidney function and cardiovascular health, and COX-2 promotes fever, inflammation, and pain in response to various illnesses. By finding a natural COX-2 inhibitor, Brandy, Qazi, and their team would provide medical professionals with an alternative to over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs, lowering the risk of fatal disease.
Conducting this research comes with its own unique set of challenges. With limited resources and dated technology, it is increasingly difficult to run Maestro since it is a software that requires a lot of bandwidth. Additionally, the precise process to test one molecule from the ZINC-15 database can take nearly the entire day. The team is often sharing the lab with other researchers, so getting through the approximate 900 million molecules in the database is a time consuming task, even for the team of six. Research like this can take years and this team had only eight weeks to dedicate to the project. With the end of summer approaching, Insherah Qazi and her fellow team members plan to coordinate during the fall semester and continue their work on the research team.
