蜜月直播

March 10, 2022 鈥� Ensuring that students have the opportunity to couple classroom education with hands-on experiences is one of the hallmarks of a Marist education. The SEA-PHAGES program in the School of Science does exactly that.

, a project from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute offers two programs for institutions. Marist partnered with SEA to take part in the PHAGES program that studies novel bacteriophages from a local environment over two semesters. The SEA-PHAGES program aims to embed fundamental research and practices into early undergraduate science programs across the nation, and 蜜月直播 is now a member of this vast network of partner institutions. 

 In the PHAGES program students both identify and characterize, 鈥渘ovel bacteriophages from local environments, annotate the genomes, and submit the annotated sequences to the National Center for Biotechnology Information GenBank database,鈥� according to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute webpage. 

When Dr. Megan Dennis, Assistant Professor of Biology, and the Biology Department looked to update the lab opportunities for early undergraduate students, the SEA-PHAGES program stood out. 鈥淭his program was noteworthy for the level of support provided to faculty and students, and for a history of strong assessment, with documented evidence of its benefits on student outcomes,鈥� said Dennis.

Bianca D鈥機osta 鈥�25 (center, seated in blue) with Dr. Megan Dennis (right, standing)

As one option for the general biology lab for first-year students, the SEA-PHAGES lab allows high-impact learning opportunities and the chance to make scientific discoveries that can impact a scientific field. 鈥淭his program gives students a chance to participate in authentic biology research from the moment they arrive on campus and to make discoveries which contribute to advances in medicine and other disciplines,鈥� said Dennis.

First-year Biomedical Science major Sydney Natale 鈥�25 never thought she would conduct this type of research early on in her college experience. 鈥淚n high school, we pretty much knew what results we expected. Now we have the ability to discover something brand new. I assumed I wouldn鈥檛 be conducting this type of research until at least junior year. This is truly an exciting opportunity,鈥� said Natale.

Continually researching throughout the semester, students participating in the SEA-PHAGES program can see their progress and results through the finish line, giving young students invaluable experience. 鈥淓ach day in the lab is dedicated to a specific procedure to advance the study. Each procedure fulfilled in the lab builds off of the previous days鈥� techniques, enabling me to directly visualize the significance of each precise step executed to progress the study,鈥� said Biomedical Science major Bianca D鈥機osta 鈥�25.

Sydney Natale 鈥�25 (left) 

鈥淔or Marist, this is an exciting opportunity to expand access to high-impact educational experiences, and to support students as they build their skills and identity as scientists,鈥� said Dennis.

The students involved are not only in the lab researching their phages; they are then translating their discoveries to a collective database, sharing research across the nation. 鈥淭he end goal of our research is to discover phage, analyze its genome, and publish our findings to the phage discovery database,鈥� said Natale.

Throughout the research, students have adapted from the unexpected and learned to adjust their research amid unforeseen results. 鈥淭he fascinating research that I have contributed to in my lab has taught me the importance of growing from unexpected results, being ready to adapt to any changes, and viewing them positively as resources to expand the science-based horizon,鈥� said D鈥機osta.

To see the research students conducted during the Fall 2021 semester, filter 鈥淢arist鈥� under the institution's drop-down on .