Alberta Innovates- Health Solutions

“I was able to do things nobody's ever done before”

Once a curious child's preoccupation, Peter Hwang's long-time desire to figure out "how things work" has led to a promising career in medical research.

"Once I got to work in a real lab, I was hooked," he says, referring to his first year as an undergraduate student. "I was able to do things that nobody's ever done before."

The exceptional AHFMR summer student has been conducting research that could one day contribute to the development of a new class of high potency antibiotics.

Concern is growing that common infections may eventually become resistant to current antibiotic treatments.

Mr. Hwang will spend his fourth and last summer in Heritage Scientist Hans Vogel's Calgary lab researching lactoferricin, a microbial peptide that has been found to kill bacteria. Pairing the unique properties of lactoferricin with conventional antibiotics may be the ammunition needed to wipe out increasingly resistant bacterial strains.

The structure of this microbial peptide - a fragment of the much larger protein lactoferrin - was determined last summer using a technique called nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Mr. Hwang placed samples of lactoferricin in a strong magnetic field and pulsed them with radio waves. The resulting signals generated complicated spectra which he interpreted with a computer program to create three-dimensional pictures of the peptide.

Knowing how its various parts fit together will go a long way toward helping researchers figure out how lactoferricin is effective in fighting bacteria. Mr. Hwang explains: " How do these peptides tell the difference between bacteria, fungi and mammalian cells? What is the actual mechanism that they use to kill bacteria? Determining the structure of the peptide was a key starting point to answering these questions."

It is thought that antimicrobial peptides kill bacteria by interacting with membranes. This summer, research will be focused on how lactoferricin acts in a membrane-like environment.

Mr. Hwang completed a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Calgary last April. He'll begin his studies in the M.D/Ph.D. program at the University of Toronto in September.

Peter Hwang has been an AHFMR summer student for the past four years. Dr. Hans Vogel is a Heritage Scientist.

To see a picture of lactoferricin B, check the following website: http://groningen.bio.ucalgary.ca/~peter