As the culmination of a year-long effort at Hampden-Sydney to discover and characterize new bacteriophages from the environment as part of its associate membership in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Science Education Alliance (SEA), Greg Robertson ’12 presented the findings of the Molecular Biology and Genomics classes from the past year at the HHMI Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, VA as part of the annual national symposium for the SEA program.  The symposium draws together faculty and students from over 70 schools nationwide to share and discuss their data as well as learn about opportunities to pursue careers in biomedical research.

Greg Robertson '12 with his research poster

H-SC's entry in the HHMI program featuring all of the students that contributed to the phage project

Hampden-Sydney’s analyzed phage, Arturo, was discovered by Duncan Oliphant ’12 and characterized by 12 students over the course of the 2011-12 year.  The SEA program allowed these students to engage in an authentic research experience in a classroom setting.

Professor Mike Wolyniak, H-SC administrator of the HHMI-SEA program, with Greg Robertson

Greg presenting his poster

The findings from this year’s class on Artuto and 8 other isolated phages will be used in a number of molecular biology and biochemistry projects with future students.  H-SC will once again participate in the HHMI-SEA project in the 2012-13 academic year through its Molecular Biology class in the fall semester and the opportunity for students to conduct independent research projects based on class findings during the spring semester.

Greg at HHMI, appropriately with a Helix Drive mailing address