It’s All the Phage: Phage Discovery & Genomics

With the development of antibiotic resistance, research for alternative treatment methods has increased. Particularly, the study of bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, has received much attention. The concept of bacteriophage therapy is the usage of specific phages to infect bacterial pathogens and to effectively destroy the harmful bacteria. The increased demand for phage research has prompted the creation of various programs to expand the collection of analyzed phages, which can potentially be used to treat bacterial infections that are resistant to antimicrobial therapies. One such program is Phage Hunters, an introductory honors biology course at the University of Mary Washington. This course covers similar lecture material as other introductory biology courses; however, the lab component emphasizes real-world research experience. The main objective of the laboratory aspect is to collect, isolate, purify, and analyze a phage. We review the laboratory procedures and results of UMW Phage Hunters students’ novel phage discoveries