A pivot from med school to research for synthetic chemist Tony Davis

To a non-chemist, reading the profile Tony Davis has on his faculty page might be akin to reading the list of ingredients on the back of a bottle of hand lotion or hair dye ꟷ impossible for a layperson to comprehend.

But to Davis, it’s pretty basic. An assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Binghamton University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, he is a synthetic chemist by training, and he’s in the business of making molecules.

“The ultimate goal is to develop drugs,” he said. “My lab is developing small molecules and probes that can be used to interrogate biology. One area of current research is to understand how compounds found in nature called natural products are biosynthesized.”

A natural product is just a molecule that is made by an organism. It could be produced by a plant, a bacterium or a fungus, Davis explained. “From a biological perspective, the organism makes the molecule to provide some advantage ꟷ perhaps to allow it to survive against predators or under harsh environmental conditions. Many of these molecules produced by organisms have found use as clinical therapeutics. Part of our work is to understand the inner workings of natural product biosynthetic pathways.”

Davis earned his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Xavier University of Louisiana, his PhD in pharmacology from Cornell University and completed a National Institutes of Health-National Institute of General Medical Sciences postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California San Diego. His current research in the synthesis of natural products at Binghamton is funded by a National Institutes of Health K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award that he received at UCSD and continues for three years at Binghamton.

“The grant is focused on understanding parts of natural products pathways,” he said. “In particular, we are studying a class of enzymes called methyltransferases, which install a small functional group on natural products that can drastically change the properties of the molecule itself. This small chemical change could produce a compound that’s more permeable, or make it resistant to degradation.

“We are investigating how methyltransferases recognize their substrates and how they recognize other proteins within the pathway,” he said. “And the goal is to use that information to engineer the enzymes so that they can take on a broader array of substrates and perform more diverse chemistry.”

New and improved is the goal, said Davis, who wants to determine if these enzymes can modify existing drugs, possibly giving them new biological activity or improving existing biological activity.

Because many bacterial pathogens use these biosynthetic pathways to make molecules that facilitate survival within a human host, Davis has been thinking about developing drugs against these enzymes that could potentially be used as new antibiotics. “With the drug resistance problem, there’s definitely a need to discover new targets within bacteria, and we are exploring whether methyltransferases could be possible targets,” he said.

“We need to do the chemistry and test the hypothesis,” he said. “For folks who have allergic reactions to a lot of the antibiotics out there, we’re a long ways off, but it does have potential applications in that area.”

Though Davis is not yet collaborating with Binghamton faculty, he is also working on an unrelated project dealing with infectious diseases that is looking at using computer-based techniques and expertise as chemists to design molecules against other bacterial targets that haven’t been probed before.

“I do hope our work leads into new areas and fosters collaborations with fellow pharmaceutical sciences faculty or others within the broader Binghamton University community,” he said.

Though Davis started his position at Binghamton in the midst of a pandemic, and arrived from sunny California, at least he’s no stranger to cold weather. He grew up in Denver, Colorado, and though spent his undergraduate years in New Orleans, and completed his graduate work in New York City.

A first-generation college student, he originally planned to become a physician and, in fact, chose Xavier for its track record for putting African Americans into medical school. “That’s how I would be viable,” he said.

His path changed thanks, in part, to his general chemistry lab professor. “To me, being in a lab was just fantastic,” Davis said. “One day this professor said, ‘You should consider doing research.’ I thought, ‘What are you talking about?’ but he planted the seed that I could do something other than go to med school and that other science-based opportunities were available.”

Davis joined a lab in his junior year of college where he learned a lot about organic synthesis ꟷ and never looked back.

“In choosing a grad school program, I wanted to make molecules but wanted to make them so I could see what they did. I wanted to put them in something,” he said. “I chose a PhD in pharmacology and was fortunate to get into a lab that allowed me to develop my synthetic skills as well as work on a project that provided training in biology. That was quite challenging at first.”

As far as becoming an academic, Davis believes that desire was always there, but he was unsure of what type of institution he would like land at ꟷ one teaching focused or research focused.

“That was really solidified during my postdoc when I got more experience training and mentoring grad students and undergraduates, and not just that, but also writing grants,” he said. “Writing the K99/R00 proposal was a huge task, but gave me the confidence that I could thrive at a research-intensive institution since grant writing is one of the major aspects of the job.”

What excited Davis the most about Binghamton University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is the level of outstanding, high-caliber collaborative research. “In the Pharmaceutical Sciences Department we have faculty whose expertise spans neuromuscular diseases, targeted drug delivery, bioanalytical sensors, and drug development. Collaboration is also encouraged within and across departments.” The collaborative nature is evident when you walk into the pharmacy building and see the monitors that post what scientific papers have been published, Davis said. “It’s very common to see a pharm sci faculty next to a clinical faculty. I would have never thought how two folks who do fairly unrelated research could find a nexus and something to collaborate on. To me that potential is very exciting.” Davis also noted that collaboration extends to teaching, stating that he co-coordinated a course last semester with a faculty in pharmacy practice.

In addition to the impactful research, Davis was drawn to the School of Pharmacy by its novelty. “It’s relatively new compared to other large places and that makes for a unique opportunity to mold a program and to influence the culture and values from the very beginning.” he said. “Our PharmD curriculum already runs like a well-oiled machine, and I am excited to participate in the rollout of our master’s and PhD programs soon.”

Davis continues to tackle the challenges of being new to Binghamton and on the tenure track during a pandemic. “It’s hectic at times, but overall, it’s not something that I’m doing alone and everyone is in the same boat,” he said. “Students and faculty are just trying to make the best of it. I have the support of a wonderful department chair and extraordinary colleagues who have provided advice and constructive feedback to help with my transition to the tenure track.”

When asked about hobbies, Davis called himself a foodie at heart, who enjoys cooking, going out to restaurants and traveling. If he had to pick a favorite place to go for food and travel, it would be Vancouver, Canada. “It’s a pretty city, with delicious food,” he said. “But I may be biased because it’s the last vacation my wife and I went on.”