THIBODAUX, La. — Beginning this Fall, ÐÓ°É´«Ã½ biology and chemistry students will spend the next year digging through the dirt looking for viruses after the university was selected to participate in a national undergraduate research program.<\/p>\n
Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science, or SEA-PHAGES, is a national, two-semester, discovery-based undergraduate research course that begins with digging in the soil to find new viruses, then progresses through a variety of microbiology techniques and eventually to complex genome annotation and bioinformatic analyses. A phage is a virus that preys on and feeds off bacteria. They are found, among other places, in the soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cOffering this research-based course provides us with the opportunity to revolutionize the way we teach biology at ÐÓ°É´«Ã½,\u201d says Christie Landry, assistant professor of biological sciences. \u201cOur students will have the opportunity to collaborate and publish their work alongside scientists and peers from all over the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eligible students must be at least a sophomore by Fall 2019 and have completed the biology foundation courses. Informational sessions will be held later in the semester.<\/p>\n
The program aims to increase undergraduate interest and retention in biological sciences through immersion in authentic, valuable, yet accessible research.<\/p>\n
The course was first offered in 2008, and since that time SEA-PHAGES students have isolated and archived more than 4,000 mycobacteriophages, sequenced more than 460 complete genomes and submitted over 180 annotations to GenBank. Seventeen peer-reviewed publications have come out of the program, at least six of which have included undergraduate authors.<\/p>\n
SEA-PHAGES is jointly administered by Graham Hatfull’s group at the University of Pittsburgh and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education division and is supported by HHMI.<\/p>\n
###<\/p>\n
CONTACT: Jacob Batte, Media Relations and Publications Coordinator,<\/p>\n
985.448.4141 or jacob.batte@www.nicholls.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THIBODAUX, La. — Beginning this Fall, ÐÓ°É´«Ã½ biology and chemistry students will spend the next year digging through the dirt looking for viruses after the university was selected to participate in a national undergraduate research program. Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science, or SEA-PHAGES, is a national, two-semester, discovery-based undergraduate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n