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There are a lot of drivers of extinction, habitat destruction, pollution, climate change, invasive

species, but a consequence of almost all these giant problems

is the spread of disease. Right under our noses, many plant and animal species are facing their

own little pandemics. Is there something chemists could do to help? My next guest thinks so.

Dr. Tim Surnak is a chemist at the University of Michigan. He's

been developing drugs for people for 20 years, but more recently his patient roster has started to

include sea turtles and frogs and giant reptiles. We'll hear why he's making drugs for wildlife

and why he thinks more chemists should get in on this. Tim, welcome to

Science Friday. Thanks, Thora. It sounds like you're a man on a mission. Can you sum up the

mission? Yeah, can we can we use chemistry to improve ecosystem health? I've had the luxury, I guess,

of working in human health for so long. And the science is so much fun, right?

You're looking at atoms and bonds and you're like buried inside the active side of a protein,

imagining a chemical.

You know, like a true chemist. That's a chemist idea of fun.

You know, it was important to me to get

quickly to atoms and bonds in this podcast because, you know, for all my chemists out there,

...