Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry Dr. Francis Umesiri Discovers New Compounds that Combat Tuberculosis

Dr. Francis Umesiri was the lead investigator of pre-clinical drug research, completed in collaboration with the Institute for Tuberculosis Research at the University of Illinois Chicago. His article, published in the prestigious European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, details the design, synthesis and screening of 22 new alpha and beta-peptoids that can be used to kill the bacteria that cause tuberculosis.

A new drug would benefit the millions of people each year who get infected with tuberculosis, which has been the single highest cause of death from a single infectious disease worldwide for years. According to the World Health Organization, 10.8 million people became infected with tuberculosis in 2023, and 1.25 million died from the disease. A disproportionate amount of those cases occurred in Asian and African countries. Another World Health Organization report indicates that around 25% of the Earth’s population is infected with the bacteria that cause tuberculosis, making them carriers of an inactive form of the disease. Up to ten percent of those people will eventually develop the active form.

In recent years, Mycobacterium tuberculosis has developed multi-drug resistance to the two strongest antibiotics historically used to treat the disease. Umesiri’s newly discovered compounds successfully killed drug-resistant bacteria, representing a major breakthrough in tuberculosis research. Scientific researchers and medical teams could potentially develop these leads into an effective drug against tuberculosis in the future.

“Tuberculosis is far more significant than many people in the United States realize,” Umesiri said. “Right now, in the U.S. alone, about 13 million people have the inactive form. So, if you think about 10% of those people developing the active form of the disease, it’s no longer an insignificant problem in the U.S.”

Wheaton alumni Margaret Metzger ’20, Jake Cuevas ’21, Janaya Feiner ’21, and John Kauffman ’24 are listed as co-authors in the research paper due to their significant contributions to the study. As recipients of the Summer Scholars Fellowship, they created and analyzed the new compounds in Umesiri’s lab over two summers and two semesters while completing their undergraduate degrees. “In participating in a faculty-led research project like this, students learn to engage practically with chemical and biological concepts they have learned in class,” Dr. Umesiri said. “They also get a chance to experience firsthand the challenging and rewarding process of scientific research and discovery.” 

—Juliana Bacote