#SoCaltech: David Delgadillo

David Delgadillo and his grandfather on his grandfather's dairy farm.

“My grandpa ran a dairy farm in a small town in Mexico, so from birth until my early teens I’d visit every summer. What I remember most is probably his love for nature and specifically his cows. We definitely got our hands into the mix of taking care of and milking them, and that included lots of antibiotic ointments that go on the udders or the cows’ bodies if they got a cut. My grandpa was knowledgeable about the plant life in the region, what the cows ate, and how to use different herbs, like rosemary and aloe mixed with rubbing alcohol as medicinal treatment. (To this day, my mom will say, ‘Mijo, run outside and cut me some aloe vera,’ if she burns herself cooking.)

“That upbringing made me curious about how this ointment was helping these cows with their infections and what this aloe vera was doing to help my mom's burn. Eventually, I learned many medicines prescribed by doctors actually start as natural products. I thought, I want to be that person out there sifting through all of the chemicals that nature produces and finding some that we can benefit from as a society. Then I found Caltech, where somebody named Hosea Nelson [professor of chemistry] had this novel method of using electron diffraction to solve the structures of small molecules. He gave me the freedom to try a crazy idea and apply his method to finding molecules in nature—meaning plants, fungus, and bacteria. It's really speeding up the way that we visualize compounds in nature.

“So, in the lab, we still use an alcohol to extract molecules from plants. It may not be rubbing alcohol like my grandpa did, but it achieves the same principle. The process of preparing for my Science Journeys talk has really made me reflect on how everything is connected.”

David Delgadillo is a postdoctoral scholar research associate in chemistry. On Friday, November 8, as part of the Science Journeys program, David will share his path to Caltech and explore how humans throughout history have harnessed the medicinal properties of plants. Science Journeys offers free on-campus presentations designed especially for middle and high school students and educators. Register today.

#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.