Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 920/832-6590
For Immediate Release
May 22, 2000

Lawrence University Chemist Awarded $143,000 Grant for Antibiotics
Research 


     APPLETON, WIS. -- A  Lawrence University chemist will begin
attempts to create entirely new varieties of the antibiotic erythromycin
this summer by altering its molecular structure through genetic
engineering. 
     Richard Summers, assistant professor of chemistry at Lawrence, has
been awarded a $143,763 Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) by
the National Institutes of Health to investigate the production of new
antibiotic derivatives.
     The development of new antibiotic derivatives are essential in the
fight against disease-causing bacteria, which are growing increasingly
resistant to antibiotic treatments and to reduce side effects of current
drugs.
     Summers' research, which will be carried out over the course of the
next three years with the help of 9-12 Lawrence students, will focus on
the antibiotic producing bacteria Saccharopolyspora erythraea.  Summers
will attempt to change the structure of the highly complex erythromycin
molecule through genetic engineering rather than standard chemical
procedures.  Using recombinant DNA techniques, Summers hopes to change
the genes in Saccharopolyspora erythraea bacteria that are responsible
for the production of erythromycin, an antibiotic that was first
developed in the 1950s.  Summers estimates more than 100 new
erythromycin derivatives are possible through the manipulation of the
antibiotic's basic molecular structure.
                     "It's certainly very exciting to bring this kind of
state-of-the-art research to Lawrence," said Summers.  "The subject is
interesting as well as relevant, and our students will learn complex
techniques that will be directly applicable to their future scientific
pursuits.  There's always the possibility that some of our derivatives
may actually prove to be superior to erythromycin.  That's our hope
anyway."
     The AREA grant will support research similar to that Summers
conducted as a molecular biologist in the anti-infective research
department at Abbott Laboratories prior to coming to Lawrence.  A member
of the faculty since 1997, Summers earned his bachelor's degree in
chemistry at Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. in biochemistry at Harvard
University.