“The dark ages of medicine.\u201d That\u2019s how former British Prime Minister David Cameron has characterized today\u2019s era of \u201csuperbugs\u201d \u2014 bacteria that respond to no antibiotic \u2014 and viruses that threaten a global health crisis. \u201cWe risk being in a post-antibiotic world,\u201d says Dr. Thomas Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n
If you bring up the topic of frightening superbugs with Seton Hall Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Tin-Chun Chu, however, she might reach for a nice cup of hot tea. But not just to drink.<\/p>\n
Chu\u2019s research centers on polyphenols, or products of metabolism, in green and black tea. Combine them with lower-than-usual doses of antibiotics, Chu and her colleagues have discovered, and you\u2019ve got a promising defense against bacteria \u2014 and even certain viruses, like herpes simplex.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a dream combo, which boosts the effectiveness of antibiotics like Ampicillin more than 400 percent, Chu says. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to find something purely natural,\u201d says Chu, whose collaborators working on green tea are Stephen Hsu of Augusta University and Lee H. Lee of Montclair State University. Chu and her Seton Hall students have also investigated the properties of black tea.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see all of those horrible side effects from synthetic drugs,\u201d Chu continues, \u201cwhere commercials tell you they solve one problem; then they give you 10 minutes about side effects. Now, we\u2019re thinking that if we\u2019re able to go back to the natural product and ingredients \u2014 anything already in our diet; some of the spices and herbs and stuff like that \u2014 we\u2019re thinking that since everyone says tea has a good health benefit, let\u2019s have the science prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, the trio has done just that: Their joint U.S. patent, awarded last January, confirms green tea\u2019s ability to inhibit endospores from the bacillus genus, which includes dangerous anthrax; and from clostridium, whose byproduct, botulinum, turns food deadly \u2014 implying that tea might be an excellent food preservative.<\/p>\n For her efforts, Chu was named Seton Hall University Researcher of the Year in 2013 and College of Arts and Sciences College Professor of the Year for 2013\u201314. This April, she was keynote speaker at the New Jersey branch of the American Society for Microbiology.<\/p>\n Not bad for a Taiwanese immigrant \u2014 now in her late 30s \u2014 who arrived in New Jersey in 1998 to visit a cousin in Parsippany. Back then Chu, who goes by \u201cTina,\u201d was a student majoring in forestry at National Taiwan University, and that didn\u2019t resonate. So, she took up her cousin\u2019s suggestion to stick around and study locally.<\/p>\n Enrolling at Montclair State, she met Professor Lee, who had coincidentally attended the same high school and college back in Taiwan, and joined Lee\u2019s lab.<\/p>\n Moving up the academic ladder, Chu obtained her Ph.D. in biomedical informatics from UMDNJ (which later became Rutgers) and involved herself in the study of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms, those globs of green that float atop lakes and streams, which used to be called blue-green algae.<\/p>\n \u201cSome strains of cyanobacteria can release toxins, and that\u2019s very scary,\u201d Chu explains, describing potential fatal effects to fish, and liver cancer in humans. One of the major toxin-producing cyanobacteria tainted Toledo, Ohio\u2019s drinking water in 2014, and before the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, caused Chinese soldiers to be dispatched to clean the rivers for rowing events by scooping up the blooms with their helmets.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why we went to China,\u201d Chu says of work she did with Zhejiang University to isolate organisms called cyanophages, which kill the bacteria. She\u2019s now collaborating with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to detect the blooms and cyanotoxins before they take root in local waterways.<\/p>\n Nowadays, Chu is conducting research on two tracks: bloom-causing cyanobacteria (and their cyanophages) as well as natural products, including tea polyphenols.<\/p>\n On a recent spring day, Chu led a tour of her sunny lab crammed with equipment and \u2014 as part of her \u201cnatural\u201d focus \u2014 a patchouli plant and tea extract. (No dangerous bacteria on site, she assured a visitor.)<\/p>\n \u201cI love to integrate my research into teaching,\u201d said Chu of her teaching philosophy. \u201cTo learn science is to do science.\u201d<\/p>\n As for those tea extracts that take up her time, Chu offered a piece of useful advice: Drink your tea hot.<\/p>\n Chilling the tea weakens its antioxidant effects.<\/p>\n By Joan Oleck<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Biologist Tin-Chun Chu uses powerful natural substances to solve critical health and environmental challenges. <\/p>\n