Phage Discovery Program
Phage Discovery Program
What is it?
We are part of the SEA-PHAGES national collaboration in bacteriophage genomics. In the Phage Discovery Program, students isolate, name, sequence, and analyze viruses that infect bacteria.
This initiative is together administrated by the Science Education Alliance group within the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and Dr. Graham Hatfull and team at the University of Pittsburgh.
Join Phage Discovery
Applications for Fall 2023
What are phages?
Bacteriophages are viruses able to infect bacteria.
Bacteriophage GodoBird
Podovirus islolated from Mycobacterium smegmatis
MRSA
© NIH
Why are phages important?
Bacteriophages have the potential to become the next generation of treatment for antibiotic resistant bacterial infections.
Phage Discovery Program Courses
The Phage Discovery Program is a two-semester set of discovery-based undergraduate research courses: Virus Isolation and Bioinformatics.
In the fall semester, during Special Topics Virus Isolation course (BIOL 4090), students collect soil or water samples and bring them back to the lab. Then, they perform direct and enriched isolation assays to find bacteriophages. Next, the viruses are further isolated by serial dilutions followed by plaque assays. After isolating a phage, students amplify it to a high virus titer. At this point, students are ready to progress in characterizing their phages. First, the phage is reverse stained on a mesh grid, followed by imaging using a transmission electron microscope. Students analyze the microscopy images to determine the morphology and type of virus isolated. Second, students extract the viral DNA and perform a genetic analysis. If the DNA is unique and of high quality and quantity, we send it to the Pittsburgh Bacteriophage Institute for next-gen whole genome sequencing.
In the spring semester, during Special Topics Bioinformatics course (BIOL 4090), students annotate the whole genome of the sequenced viruses.
After completing the Virus Isolation and Bioinformatics, students can continue their research of characterizing their phage discoveries.
Phage Discovery Program Community Engagement
Students in the Phage Discovery Program
