{"id":5285,"date":"2026-05-13T15:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/?post_type=profiles&#038;p=5285"},"modified":"2026-08-12T11:58:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T15:58:04","slug":"asher-ferreira","status":"publish","type":"profiles","link":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/profiles\/asher-ferreira\/","title":{"rendered":"Asher Ferreira"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\"><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Ferreira-Asher-edited.jpg\" alt=\"by Corban Swain\" class=\"wp-image-5809\" style=\"width:152px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Ferreira-Asher-edited.jpg 400w, https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Ferreira-Asher-edited-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>University of Colorado Boulder<\/strong><br>Faculty Advisor: Prof. Cathy Drennan<br>Research Supervisor: Zhuangyu Zhao<br>Department: Chemistry<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:0px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Biography<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asher has been passionate about inventing cures for diseases since being diagnosed<br>with Type 1 Diabetes at 9 years old. He joined the Luger Lab during his freshman year. Now<br>heading into his senior year at CU Boulder, he has applied his experience with a myriad<br>of structural biology and biochemistry techniques to innovative drug development. He<br>worked full-time for two summers at MIT in the Drennan Lab, where he proposed a new<br>antibiotic target, invented assays to find inhibitors, and designed new proteins. He hopes<br>to develop FDA-approved drugs over the course of his career and is applying to chemical<br>biology PhD programs in Fall 2026. Asher is also passionate about empowering the next<br>generation of scientists. In addition to leading middle school science education outreach, he<br>started SCORSU, a national research study investigating how a diverse sample of STEM<br>undergraduates has been differentially affected by federal cuts to scientific funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><br><strong>iScreen Cone: A Tasty New Method for Finding Antibiotics<br>Asher Ferreira1, Zhuangyu Zhao2 and Catherine Drennan2<\/strong><br>1Department of Biochemistry, University of Colorado Boulder<br>2 Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Resistance to antibiotics is rising globally largely due to the widespread use of broad-spectrum<br>antibiotics and lack of narrow-spectrum alternatives. The scarcity of new enzymatic antibiotic<br>targets plays a significant role in the fact that only a couple of new antibiotics reach the market<br>globally every year. An attractive new target is the enzyme ribonucleotide reductase (RNR)<br>because of its critical role in DNA synthesis and enormous diversity across life. A molecule<br>that can selectively inhibit the RNR of specific bacteria would be a potent narrow-spectrum<br>antibiotic. However, current assays which measure the inhibition of RNRs are laborious and<br>low throughput. In a departure from established RNR activity assays, we are developing<br>methods which exploit their unique naturally occurring inhibition mechanism. Many RNRs<br>possess subunits called \u201ccone domains\u201d which bind to each other to inhibit the enzyme.<br>By detecting this binding event instead of enzymatic activity directly, we are developing<br>high-throughput screens for inhibitors using the cone domains (iscreen cone assays) to<br>greatly accelerate the discovery of narrow-spectrum antibiotic candidates and improve our<br>understanding of RNR inhibition mechanisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5594,"template":"","profile_category":[25],"class_list":["post-5285","profiles","type-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","profile_category-2026-interns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profiles"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5810,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5285\/revisions\/5810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"profile_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_category?post=5285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}