Congratulations to Sarah Ball (Molecular Genetics and Center for Life Science Education) who was recently awarded a grant entitled "SEA-Lab IPATH Phage Collaboration" from the Herbert W. Hoover Foundation! Building on her long term involvement in the Science Education Alliance (SEA) PHAGES CURE that allows students to isolate bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) from soil samples collected from locations around campus, in Columbus, and beyond, and in cooperation with the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH) at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), co-directed by Dr. Steffanie Strathdee, this project will allow OSU student to identify and source phages with potential to be used in phage therapies that target drug resistant bacteria. Students will collect soil and water samples from Stark County, Ohio, farms which typically contain bacterial pathogens that infect livestock and humans, ad will isolate phage from the samples which will be shipped to the IPATH lab where they will be sequenced. Each time a phage is used to treat a patient, the student(s) who identified the phage will be notified. The IPATH and SEA-LAB team, including several students, will present at a symposium in Stark County to share their findings with local farmers.