Jessica Davis, a Yale University graduate chemistry student, ventured to Quinnipiac on Monday, Sept. 26, to share with the students her knowledge and research in the field of drug development, design and proteomimetics.

The lecture was centered around the idea of how drug discovery has moved to a more systematic approach of rational design, random HTS, high-throughout screening (HTS), and structure based drug design (SBDD) to improve results.

Davis spoke of various methods of drug discovery including proteomimetics. She also discussed the long process of progress in the field of drug discovery because of the different stages one must go through. Pre-clinical, clinical and post market stages of drug development all must be completed in order to make any advancement in the drug development field.

Davis’ free lecture was enjoyed by several QU students that were interested in the chemistry and health/science fields. Among these students was Kayla Kurczy, a freshman and undecided health science major, who was avidly taking notes throughout Davis’ lecture. Kurczy found the lecture to be fast paced, but informative.

Davis received her bachelor’s degree from Marist College and her master’s degree from Yale University. Davis is currently enrolled at Yale pursuing her Ph.D.

When Davis was asked why she became interested in the topic of drug development and discovery, she said that her main inspiration was knowing someone that passed away from cancer and wanting to help. In regards to future research regarding this topic, Davis hopes one day that it will be much easier to find drugs that help fight against cancer as well as other diseases that cause major concern in our society.

This event was sponsored by the Sigma Xi, founded in 1886, a non-profit membership society of scientists and engineers who were elected to the society because of their research achievements or potential. Davis’ public lecture proved to be informative for the Quinnipiac students along with other eager listeners who attended.