When Southern Methodist University (SMU) researcher Alexander Chase was a young boy, the sheer diversity of plants in Earth's tropical rainforests fascinated him. He found himself wondering what new species were out there, waiting to be unearthed. That curiosity is why Chase now collects samples from Earth's oceans using a new technique called small molecule in situ resin capture (SMIRC), which could be the first step in uncovering compounds that lead to next-generation antibiotics.
