Credit: Peter McDonald.

"Even as far back as early high school I enjoyed imagining atoms floating around and bumping into each other. That’s pretty much what you do all day in this type of work. It fits me well,” says Jason Smith, a drug design and optimisation researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney.

Smith’s research involves working out how proteins function. He uses his findings to design, make and test drug candidates. In a recent study, he investigated a protein called indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), which occurs naturally in the human body. The enzyme is hijacked by tumours and used like an invisibility cloak. The tumours use it to hide their presence from the body’s immune system. Using a computational chemistry technique called virtual screening, Smith was able to identify four anti-cancer drug candidates that inhibit IDO and have the potential to slow tumour growth.

Smith undertook his research on IDO as part of his Masters degree, publishing his findings in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry. He is staying at Macquarie University to start a PhD on the same topic next year. He plans to work further on the IDO inhibitors he has identified.

“I will also be working on methods for us to more accurately measure what IDO is doing when we use these and other anti-cancer compounds against it, again so we can design even better drugs in the future.”

“I love a challenge, and I love that feeling of victory you get when you solve a problem. I love being presented with a whole bunch of data and working out what it’s trying to tell us. More importantly, I love finding out what the data isn’t telling us, and then designing an experiment to get that information. Surprisingly though, I’m really, really bad at riddles,” Smith jokes.

Smith recommends aspiring researchers get as much hands on experience as possible, as he did during his undergraduate degree, learning by doing, rather than reading. He also thinks tenacity is the key to success. “Coming as I did from an area like Mount Druitt, which is not painted in a good light in many people’s minds, I think it’s important to show that background is irrelevant. Determination and spirit will always win the day.”

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