Halmos Faculty, Students Publish Bacteriophages Discoveries

Julie Torruellas Garcia, Ph.D., and Katie Crump, Ph.D., faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS)  co-teach a two-semester, 3-credit biology research course open to freshman and sophomore students of any major, known as BIOL1000 and BIOL1001, Introduction to Biology Research I and II. This course is part of a national CURE (course based undergraduate research experience) known as SEA-PHAGES, or Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science. In the course, students take ownership of a research project that aims to isolate and characterize undiscovered bacteriophages (known as phage) from the soil that infect and kill bacteria. Any new phages identified could potentially be used in the future as alternative therapeutics to treat antibiotic resistant bacterial infections.

 

 

Recently, Garcia and Crump along with nine NSU undergraduate students, published their findings from the 2021-2022 BIOL1000 and BIOL1001 course in Microbiology Resource Announcements (https://journals.asm.org/doi/epub/10.1128/mra.00973-22). The article highlights the discovery and characterization of two new Gordonia rubripertincta bacteriophages, Genamy16 and NovaSharks, that the NSU undergraduate researchers identified using microbiology and genetic approaches. In addition to the journal article publication, the genome sequences of Genamy16 and NovaSharks were also published in GenBank, a comprehensive public database: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/2288522742 and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/2288522955

The NSU undergraduate research team includes Sarah Ballarin, Samia Callabero, Joshua Chan, Bhavya Soni, Maria Paula Farez, Ashley Guillen-Tapia, Nashrah Pierre-Louis, Victoria Polishuk, and Melissa Bell.

Please see: https://journals.asm.org/doi/epub/10.1128/mra.00973-22

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/2288522742

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/2288522955

Posted 01/08/23