Scientific Research Award At Vanderbilt University Goes To … A High Schooler

A recent award for scientific research at Vanderbilt University was given to someone who doesn’t even go there.

Hillsboro High School senior Alex Jolly was named a national semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search for his work in a Vanderbilt chemistry lab. He worked with professor Brian Bachmann, whose lab is in the business of drug discovery.

Bachmann’s research examines bacteria found in Middle Tennessee caves to see if they could be used to create new drug compounds.

“We know from looking at the blueprints of these organisms that they have enormous potential. They might be making 20 or 30 different molecules that might be drugs,” Bachmann said. “What we don’t know is how to get them to turn on and read those blueprints and produce those molecules.”

That’s where Alex Jolly came in. He takes science electives through the
School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt and was placed in Bachmann’s lab last summer.

He started out by isolating bacteria from cave soil samples and identifying their genetic blueprints. Then, he manipulated the bacteria to produce certain compounds, and he discovered some compounds that had potential for new drugs
.

“There wasn’t the stereotypical Eureka moment that most people think of,” he said. “You never really stop learning about them and researching them.”

This process of discovering compounds has almost never been applied to cave bacteria before, Bachmann said
. “So in that way, they were completely groundbreaking.”

It was a little nerve-wracking for Jolly when he started his work last summer. “I had never before dealt with anything in this field,” he said. “It was frightening and exciting at the same time.”

Bachmann said he saw a part of himself in Jolly — the professor had worked in a lab when he was in high school, too.

“That was a really, massively impactful experience for me in a young age,” Bachmann said. “It’s extremely exciting when young people express an interest in science. And it’s actually more rare than you might think.

“The point is to let them into this environment and let them go free and let them go crazy and see what they do.”

That philosophy seemed to work well with Jolly. He’s planning to major in the sciences when he goes off to college this fall.