The National Park College (NPC) Chapter of the American Chemical Society (ACS) held
their first meeting Friday, February 23rd.
The students invited NPC’s own Dr. Bishnu Dhakal to speak about the “Chemistry from
Natural Products Synthesis to Drug Discovery.” Dr. Dhakal explained that many of our
common medicines originally came from a natural source such as aspirin, which comes
from willow tree bark. Chemists take part in discovering these medicines through extraction
and researching possible uses. They are also essential in synthesizing molecules when
natural sources maybe limited or expensive to extract. This was part of Dr. Dhakal’s
graduate research at New Mexico State by trying to synthesize apomorphine. He also
explained that only 1 out of every 10,000 new drug discoveries will make it through
clinical trials and receive FDA approval. This gave a real world example of how chemistry
is used in the world of drug discovery and describes how there is still plenty of
work for new scientists to complete.
The mission of the ACS at NPC is to advance chemistry and chemical education for the benefit of the Hot Springs community. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend and participate in future ACS events.
