THE RESEARCHER | Greg Dudley

Greg Dudley received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Florida State University in 1995 and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000. Since then he has taught classes, been published in academic journals, and received numerous awards and grants.

Hard to believe chemistry was about the last thing on his mind when he started college.    

“I went to college, like so many other people, with an aversion to chemistry,” Dudley, 32, said.

When he decided to enter pre-med, Dudley was forced to enroll in the dreaded course. However, a couple of good teachers opened his mind to the discipline.

“They’re the ones who really got me turned on to chemistry,” he said.

Now Dudley runs a laboratory at FSU devoted to researching natural and organic cures, then finding a way to efficiently reproduce them synthetically. The goal is to reduce the cost and increase the effectiveness of these medicines so that they will be widely available to those who need them. FSU has a strong track record in this regard; think Taxol, the breast-cancer drug that has helped save the lives of thousands of women. Taxol was first synthesized by FSU chemistry Professor Robert Holton – Dudley’s mentor.

Dudley currently is concentrating on two natural compounds: artemisinin to treat malaria and roseophilin to treat cancer.

“Chemists have made synthetic roseophilin in the past. They just haven’t done it well enough to make it practical,” Dudley said.

His work with artemisinin to create a malaria treatment may seem inconsequential here in the United States, but Dudley said the disease still is very prevalent in underdeveloped nations – with estimates of more than 1 million people dying each year, most in sub-Saharan Africa – and that drugs to treat the disease are very expensive.

Dudley said his lab has four to five years of work left on both compounds, and after that, he will go where his curiosity takes him.

“In an academic lab, we’re going to be following our interests, as long as they’re productive,” he said. “Doing chemistry research is something I enjoy, and the fact that I am free to pursue problems that I feel are important is exciting. I’m very lucky.”  – Mackenzie Turberville