In its simplest form, the innovative work of world-renowned researchers at LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center recalls the basic steps of the scientific method: asking questions and testing hypotheses. For one associate professor, that first question has spurred her life’s work—how can we use different plant species to improve people’s quality of life?
Dr. Elizabeth Floyd leads the botanicals lab at PBRC. As a biochemistry researcher, Dr. Floyd works with scholars around the world to study different types of plant extracts and their potential health benefits.
“We're doing something that people have done for ages,” Dr. Floyd explains. “Trying to understand how to use plants for human health.”
Since she began her tenure at Pennington Biomedical in 2004, Dr. Floyd has been steadily working toward the ultimate goal—developing treatments for chronic disease. It is a fascinating process, she says, seeing plants brought from far-flung corners of the globe to her or her colleagues’ lab experiments, and eventually, into their reports and peer-reviewed publications.
“We're a long way from being finished, but in the end we’re hoping to have dietary supplements that we know are really beneficial, that we’ve studied and identified, and then at some point we can move into drug discovery,” Dr. Floyd says.
Dr. Floyd studies plants by performing experiments in cell culture. This means partitioning a plant and combining its various extracts with different solvents, such as water or ethanol, then examining the effects of those compounds on the organs involved in maintaining the body’s insulin and glucose levels. Research into the effects of plant-based compounds on the body’s systems has resulted in groundbreaking advances in treating major health conditions including obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.
In fact, the majority of pharmaceuticals developed prior to the end of the 20th century came from plants. Dr. Floyd points to the medication Metformin as an example. One of the most widely prescribed drugs in the world, Metformin is used to treat patients suffering from type 2 diabetes. Dr. Floyd explains that the drug’s active ingredient, which improves glucose tolerance, is derived from the French Lilac plant.
Dr. Floyd’s days aren’t all spent peering into a microscope “at the bench,” as she calls it, however. Much of her job involves writing grant applications to secure future rounds of funding, mentoring postdoctoral fellows and student workers, and maintaining relationships with chemists, plant biologists, and scientists around the globe.
“I think that's a big part of moving science forward,” she says. “Collaborating with people with a lot of different interests, so that everybody brings something different to the table. We all know in research that most of the time, things don't work out. So it's really exciting at the bench when something does, and you can see the progress you’ve made.”
To learn more about the current research trials and participation, call 225-763-3000 or visit pbrc.edu.
Sponsored by Pennington Biomedical Research Center
