Freshman in the SEA-PHAGE class are celebrating their successful identification of bacteriophage (viruses that infect bacteria) they discovered this semester.
The Biology class is part of SEA-PHAGES project which provides students a unique mentored research experience in their freshman year.
“This is a great experience for freshman,” says Dr. Stephanie Conant. “Providing a research laboratory experience in a students first semester is exciting for the students.”
Students are part of larger national consortium to isolate and characterize new bacteriophage.
Earlier in the semester, students collected soil samples from a variety of environmental sources. From those samples, bacteriophage is isolated, purified and amplified in the laboratory.
The morphology of purified phage is examined under an electron microscope.
Phage genomic DNA is purified and characterized by restriction enzyme analysis then DNA is sent to a sequencing center to be “decoded.”
The SEA-PHAGE laboratory is sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Science Education Alliance.
