
Nyack Students to Present at Science Education Alliance Symposium
April 5, 2022

Dr. Jacqueline Washington
Under the supervision of Dr. Jacqueline Washington, Chair and Professor of Biology and Chemistry, Nyack College students have been invited numerous times to present at the annual Science Education Alliance (SEA) Symposium sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in Chevy Chase, MD and the University of Pittsburgh. The SEA Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science program is a two-semester undergraduate research course. The course starts with discovering new viruses in soil and continues with a variety of microbiology techniques and progresses to more complex analysis.
This year, Angela Bryanne De Jesus and Joao Pedro Santos Gimenez, will represent Nyack, one of seven institutions presenting at the 2022 virtual Symposium. Their presentation is entitled, “Analysis of OscarSo and Cece: Pioneering Phage isolated from Microbacterium radiodurans.”
OscarSo and Cece were among the last phages that were isolated from soil obtained on the Rockland campus by two students. Chelsi Arias named her phage after her husband, Oscar. Honors program 2021 alumna, Cecilia Humphreys (BS/MS in Childhood Special Education) used her nickname (Cece) for her isolate. These are the first-ever phages isolated that can infect the bacteria Microbacterium radiodurans Both are unique, but Cece is one of the largest phages found to date.
Congratulations to our extraordinary student scientists for exemplifying academic excellence!
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