Courses taught

• Biology 1113.01
• SEA-PHAGES lab
• Biology 2200

Dr. Sarah Ball has been involved with the Science Education Alliance (SEA) PHAGES CURE since its inception at OSU in 2011. SEA-PHAGES lab began with an original cohort of 25 students before expanding to include some sections of Biology 1113.  To date, thousands of students have participated in this CURE since that initial cohort.

In SEA-PHAGES, students isolate bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) from soil samples collected from locations around campus, in Columbus, and beyond! Students then purify and amplify their phage populations, and along the way learn important lab techniques, such as pipetting, aseptic technique, 3-phase streaking and restriction enzyme digest and gel electrophoresis. The semester culminates with students selecting a few of their phages to be sent for sequencing.

In Biology 2200, the sequenced genomes are annotated by students using a variety of bioinformatics tools and their findings are presented at the CLSE spring symposium. As of SP2023, 57 completed genomes have been submitted to GenBank with 18 different clusters represented.

Because this is a national project, information about the student isolated phages is added to a national database, called The Actinobacteriophage Database.  All of the phages isolated in Biology 1113 SEA-PHAGES lab at OSU can be found on the OSU page of Phages DB.