The PHAGES lab has reached a major scientific milestone.
Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria and archaea. They are some of the most plentiful and diverse entities (the words living thing or organisms are debated for use in reference to viruses) on Earth, with an estimated 1031 distinct phages present on the planet. Phages are increasingly important in biological, including medical, research, because they have shown promise in targeting and eliminating bacteria in the human body, including bacteria that are resistant to traditional antibiotic treatment. As antibiotic resistance becomes more prevalent globally, and as phages are generally host-specific, researching and understanding the functions of phages is increasingly important. They represent an effective possible treatment method for a variety of human diseases, and they are located right under our noses.
In fact, students in the SEA-PHAGES lab, offered as an alternative to the typical first-year cellular and molecular biology lab, start the process of bacteriophage isolation and purification by digging up soil samples in the area and marking down their GPS coordinates. The SEA-PHAGES lab is a citizen science, education and undergraduate research program offered by the Science Education Alliance at HHMI, or the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Using curriculum developed at HHMI, and drawing from their training at the institute, TU biology faculty Dr. Katie Mika, Dr. Marc Buchheim and Dr. Sima Jonusaite are guiding students through a two-semester opportunity to learn valuable lab techniques while also contributing to a national citizen science effort with potentially wide-reaching effects.
After digging up their soil samples, students (who are mainly first-year biology majors), go through several processes in their first semester to isolate and purify their bacteriophage samples. This includes lysate collection, making a series of plates, and plaque assays. In the process, students learn techniques including serial dilutions, pipetting, and plating with agar. This week, students in the lab were able to use samples they had purified over the course of the semester to search for bacteriophages using electron microscopy. Hunched over a computer in the dark electron microscopy lab, students worked with Mr. Rick Portman, head of the Electron Microscopy center, to finally visualize and identify individual bacteriophages. Dr. Buchheim was in awe when the first phages appeared on the screen, clear as day, reflecting that the students in the room were the first in the world to see those particular phages.
Over the next few weeks, students will continue to refine their results and scan more samples for phages. At the end of the semester, each lab section will send one phage sample to HHMI for sequencing. In the fall, students will complete the genetics component of the SEA-PHAGES experience, with the goal of categorizing the genome of their selected phage sample. This process will entail a suite of computational and genetic techniques, supplementing the students’ genetics education in the fall. At the end of the two semesters, students will have a chance to have their research published, providing a serious resume boost after two semesters of hard work. Beyond that, students will have contributed to the identification of unique phages, which could potentially be used to save lives. For more information about SEA-PHAGES, visit the website at https://seaphages.org/.
