Anahita Keer has had quite the student career at Texas Wesleyan University. She has worked in SGA, done research on two different drugs, and she was the president, as well as founder, of The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Texas Wesleyan.

She will be graduating with a bachelor of science in biochemistry, as well as both university and departmental honors. Her next step after Texas Wesleyan is to receive her Ph.D. from New York University.

The two drugs that she worked on are the Novel γ-Substituted Tropolones Selectively Inhibit HDACs and Induce Apoptosis for Anti-Cancer Effects and the other was to research in drug design to see if she could find new therapeutics for malaria.

“When I began caring for someone fighting cancer and depression, I knew that I wanted to improve patients’ lives through the scientific process. Research in drug design has shown me both the beauty of discovery and the possibilities of translational bench work,” said Keer.

One of her favorite achievements is being able to talk about her passion for chemistry and explain her experiments to anyone and everyone. 

“Chemistry depends on logical problem-solving skills to manipulate any system. Whether synthesizing a staple drug like aspirin, or extracting trimyristin from nutmeg, or synthesizing drugs like phenacetin and phenytoin, the attention to detail satisfies my innate curiosity and methodical nature,” said Keer.

Her favorite award that she’s received to date is the winning the  American Chemical Society Outstanding Chemistry Student Award. She was nominated by the Department of Chemistry at Texas Wesleyan University and won the award out of the entire field of chemistry students in the DFW area.

She’ll miss the people at Texas Wesleyan because the students and staff that she’s met along the way in her time here has worked well with her learning and supportive of her ambitions.

However, not everything in her life is work and research. Keer enjoys cooking traditional Indian food and doing yoga. Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she was scuba-diving in the warm weather. Keer is also a certified rescue diver and was certified at Texas Wesleyan.

Her favorite job on campus was when she was the president and founder of student chapter of The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB). Through this organization she was able launch a virtual ‘Women in STEM’ lecture series that garnered attention from 3 continents, and 4 different states within the United States. Her lecture series also gained attention from the Women in STEM’s national organization and was even featured on their Instagram page.

She was thrilled that her hard work was recognized when she won the award for the Outstanding Senior award in Chemistry.

Keer does plan on becoming involved with Texas Wesleyan as an alumna after she graduates this spring, although, she is not yet sure what she will do.