Freshman students to get research experience in new phage genomics course

Carthage biology professor Deborah Tobiason has been selected to participate in Howard Hughes Medical Institute genomics research initiative

February 23, 2011

Carthage will offer freshman students an innovative course in genomics research beginning in Fall 2011. Biology professor Deborah Tobiason has been selected to participate in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science Education Alliance.

The SEA's National Genomics Research Initiative gives undergraduate students at select colleges and universities the opportunity to do hands-on original research studying bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria).

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Students interested in taking Phage Hunters can apply online now. Applications are due by June 30. The course is open to freshmen entering Carthage in Fall 2011. Read more.

Carthage is one of 12 schools in the country that were selected for full membership in the 2011-2012 program. HHMI provides training, research and laboratory materials, as well as support from HHMI staff.

"This is just a fabulous opportunity and we're excited to see our students benefit from it," said Prof. Tobiason. "We'll introduce freshmen to actual hands-on research right off the bat, instead of just doing standard biology labs for which we already know the answers. In this program, they will be out in the field, doing original research their freshman year. It's an experience they're not going to get at every college."

'Phage hunters'

The genomics sequence is actually two courses: a 4-credit course in the fall, and a 4-credit course in the spring. During the fall semester, students will isolate phage collected from local soil samples. Carthage students may also collect samples from Lake Michigan.

"Each student will isolate their own phage on a bacteria that is related to Mycobacterium tuberculosis," Prof. Tobiason said. Students will get to name their newly identified life form. They'll spend the rest of the term purifying and characterizing their phage and extracting its DNA. The DNA from one phage will then be sent to HHMI for sequencing.

During the spring semester, students will receive digital files from HHMI containing the selected phage's DNA sequence. The students will then use bioinformatics tools to annotate the phage and do all of the sequence analysis, Prof. Tobiason said.

The coursework builds on themes and techniques from across biology: microbiology, molecular biology, electron microscopy and bioinformatics, according to HHMI. Prof. Tobiason will team-teach the course with Patrick Pfaffle, chair of the Biology Department, as a supplement to the department’s introductory biology class.

Nurturing a passion for research

This is the fourth year of the SEA's National Genomics Research Initiative. Since 2008, almost 1,700 students at 40 colleges and universities across the country — from large research institutions to small liberal arts colleges — have discovered organisms hidden in the dirt, states the HHMI at its website. The students have isolated 1,400 soil-dwelling bacterial viruses, and analyzed the DNA sequence of almost 100 different phages.

"This is just a fabulous opportunity and we're excited to see our students benefit from it ... In this program, they will be out in the field, doing original research their freshman year."

HHMI created the SEA as a way to bring innovative courses and experimental research to undergraduate students, especially in their first year or two of college.

"Students aren't exposed to what scientists really do right away," Prof. Tobiason said. "This gets students who might think they want to major in biology or go on to medical school interested in actually doing research. Maybe they'll become the person who solves the next big problem."

In preparation for the course, Profs. Tobiason and Pfaffle will travel to Virginia for training in June and again in December. A Carthage student will also receive training at HHMI to act as Prof. Tobiason's lab assistant.

In addition to Carthage, the 12 schools selected to participate in this year’s program include Brown University, Ohio State University, and Johns Hopkins University. An additional 14 schools will join the alliance as associate members.