Student Researchers Take First at Howard Hughes Medical Institute Symposium

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An undergraduate research team from Virginia Commonwealth University earned a first-place poster award during the 4th Annual SEA-PHAGES symposium at the Janelia Farms Research Campus of Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The VCU students are participants of the Phage Discovery Lab that has been offered at VCU for the past three years. Through this project, students contribute to a nationwide genomics research study sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science Education Alliance program. The exploratory lab experience allows the VCU group, along with students at 70 institutions across the country, the opportunity to engage in hands-on research.

Last month, Kristen Wade, a sophomore student majoring in bioinformatics, presented VCU’s research findings to students and peers in the scientific community from 70 schools across the United States and Puerto Rico. Wade was chosen on behalf of her class to present at the symposium. Other members of the VCU undergraduate team included Azhar Bashir, Sahil Aggarwal, Merit George, Kaleigh Hedges, Jasmine Allen, Rone Parent and Cailin Becker. These students helped produce research project data that was highlighted on the poster and helped Wade prepare for presenting their projects.

The poster award is based on the quality of the poster and the judges’ interactions with the student at the poster. Of nearly 70 posters, there were only six first-place awards.

The work examines a unique set of organisms - bacterial viruses called bacteriophage, or phage - collected and identified by the freshman class from soil samples found in Richmond, Northern Virginia and Chesapeake during the fall semester.

Given the diversity of phage - each one is almost certain to be distinctive - the students had the opportunity to name their newly identified virus. They also were able to visualize their virus on the transmission electron microscope at the VCU Microscopy Facility in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. The genomic DNA of several of the newly discovered phages is sequenced each winter by the VCU Nucleic Acids Research Facility.

Finally, students use bioinformatics tools and techniques to identify the genes in a phage genome and complete comparative genomics research projects to understand how phages are similar and different to each other. Over the past three years, 16 new phages have been sequenced through the phage lab classes.

The poster Wade presented explored the novel characteristics and relationships among the 16 phages.

For the majority of these students, the experience is their first glimpse into scientific discovery, and a chance to be involved with a scientific investigation - creating hypotheses, carrying out experimental procedures and techniques, documenting their observations and eventually reporting their findings.

“The course has been wonderful for the bioinformatics program. It’s given our students a place to meet and learn about their major as freshmen,” said Allison Johnson, Ph.D., an assistant professor and assistant director of the VCU Center for the Study of Biological Complexity. She is instructor for the program. VCU Life Sciences and the Department of Biology jointly supported the implementation of this course at VCU.

“The students are highly interested in research. The course has provided students with a foundation in basic laboratory manipulations and the process of science, as well as bioinformatics knowledge that is not usually found in young students,” she said.

According to Johnson, at least half of the phage lab students begin mentored research projects with VCU faculty after the course - often begun during freshman year, or the summer between freshman and sophomore year.

“The earlier, the better, for maximizing the outcomes of undergraduate research,” Johnson said.