SEA-PHAGES Virus Discovery

Catalog description

Students will participate in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's (HHMI) undergraduate research program SEA-PHAGES (Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science). This research education initiative course involves students learning and applying variety of microbiology, immunology, and molecular biology techniques. Students isolate, purify, amplify, and characterizing novel bacteriophages (viruses that kill bacteria) from soil samples that they collect. Students will contribute the data on the phages that they discover to the growing database at HHMI's Phage Archive. This course involves 3 lecture and 4.5 lab hours in-person meetings per week.