Katherine Cisneros, a fifth-year graduate student in the department of medicinal chemistry, and Marissa Valentine King, a graduate student in the UF College of Veterinary Medicine, earned blue ribbon honors as one of the top posters at the Association for Clinical and Translational Science Meeting in Washington D.C. The duo’s poster titled, “A TL1 Team Approach to Evaluating Novel Antimicrobial Compounds against Mycoplasmas and their Interaction with Drug Metabolizing Enzymes,” ranked in the top 25 percent of all TL1 trainees presenting. The TL1 program gives predoctoral students an opportunity to gain skills associated with developing a career in multidisciplinary clinical and translational research.
Cisneros and King’s collaboration originated following a TL1 information session where they discovered a shared mutual research interest. In their award-winning research, Valentine used clinical Ureaplasma species isolates and human and animal mycoplasma pathogens to evaluate the efficacy of newly synthesized antimicrobial compounds from the lab of UF College of Pharmacy Assistant Professor Rob Huigens, Ph.D. Cisneros then evaluated the effective compounds for evidence of potential endocrine disruption by evaluating their interaction with drug metabolizing enzymes.
Margaret James, Ph.D., a professor of medicinal chemistry, serves as Cisneros’ mentor, while Mary Brown, Ph.D., a professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, mentors King.