Phage Pioneer: Biology Undergrad Enhances Lab Analysis – The Well being Sciences lab at McMaster College has just lately opened its doorways to fourth-year science biology undergraduate pupil Sierra Vaillancourt. Vaillancourt is on a mission to inventory the lab with bacteriophages, viruses that selectively hunt and kill micro organism. Bacteriophages, often known as phages, are a kind of virus that infects micro organism. They’re essentially the most plentiful organisms on Earth, and so they play an essential position within the atmosphere by serving to to manage bacterial populations. Phages will also be used as a possible remedy for bacterial infections.
Vaillancourt is working beneath the supervision of Rebecca Batstone, an assistant professor within the School of Science’s division of biology whose ab lacked the experience essential to deal with these viruses.. Batstone is considering utilizing phages to check basic questions in evolutionary biology. Nonetheless, she didn’t have any expertise working with phages, and nobody in her lab did both.
Additionally, Sierra Vaillancourt, sought steering from Dr. Alexander Hynes, an affiliate professor within the School of Well being Sciences and a member of the Farncombe Household Digestive Well being Analysis Institute.
Hynes invited Vaillancourt to take part in his phages bootcamp, usually reserved for college kids in his personal lab. Vaillancourt’s dedication and enthusiasm impressed Hynes and his graduate pupil, Felix Croteau, who offered her with intensive coaching.
Outfitted with the mandatory experience, Vaillancourt took it upon herself to discover ways to work with phages. She spent two weeks getting a crash course in phages analysis from Well being Sciences graduate pupil Felix Croteau. Croteau taught Vaillancourt how you can isolate phages from the atmosphere, how you can tradition them, and how you can use them to contaminate micro organism.
Vaillancourt then took what she realized again to Batstone’s lab and commenced to inventory the lab with phages. She collected phages from a wide range of sources, together with soil, water, and sewage. She additionally realized how you can isolate and tradition phages from human samples.
Vaillancourt’s work has been a worthwhile asset to Batstone’s lab. She has not solely stocked the lab with phages, however she has additionally skilled different lab members in how you can work with them. This has allowed Batstone to start her analysis on the evolutionary biology of phages.
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