Halmos Faculty Members Publish Viral Genome
Halmos faculty members Katie Crump, Ph.D., and Julie Torruellas Garcia, Ph.D., in the research laboratory for HHMI SEA Phage Discovery Training.
Halmos College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biological Sciences faculty members Julie Torruellas Garcia, Ph.D., and Katie Crump, Ph.D., recently participated in the 2021 Faculty Phage Genomics Workshop as part of the HHMI SEA-PHAGES program at NSU. During their training, Crump and Garcia worked on a team to annotate the genome of a Mycobacterium phage called Madiba. The complete genome was published in GenBank, a comprehensive public database: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/2180079159
PHAGES, or Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science, is a program where students collect soil samples in hopes of finding new viruses, called phages, that attack bacteria. Once the phages are isolated from the soil, they are identified using a genetic approach. These newly identified phages could potentially be used in the future to treat antibiotic resistant bacterial infections.
Students interested in participating in this research can sign up for BIOL 1000 and BIOL 1001 Introduction to Biological Research I and II. These three-credit courses are open to freshman and sophomore students with any major.
Posted 04/10/22