Phage Foundry Participates in the 2025 Berkeley Lab Director’s Apprentice Program (BLDAP)
For the second year in a row, members from the Phage Foundry led a research course for the Berkeley Lab Director’s Apprentice Program (BLDAP).
Funded by the Department of Energy’s WDTS Pathway Summer Schools Program and launched with a commitment to mentorship and professional growth, each summer, BLDAP provides 10th and 11th grade high school students from local public schools with a hands-on introduction to the world of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) through paid, project-based programming. BLDAP is an application-based and highly competitive program, requiring a letter of recommendation from a STEM teacher or mentor as part of the application process. Students selected to participate in BLDAP engage in a research project, learn about Berkeley Lab’s research activities, receive college and career guidance, and develop a professional STEM network. As part of the program, students are mentored by experienced Berkeley Lab scientists, engineers, and research staff, who encourage students to build confidence, develop critical thinking and analytical skills, and set ambitious academic and professional goals.
This year, Phage Foundry members from Mutalik Lab—Vivek Mutalik, principal investigator; Denish Piya, project scientist; Hemaa Selvakumar, postdoctoral researcher; Mohamad Alayouni, research associate; Madeline Svab, undergraduate researcher; Isabella Murray, undergraduate researcher; and Melina Pena, senior research associate (NSF EDGE)—joined by co-investigator Simon Roux, led students through a multi-week program titled the “Experimental Module on Isolation of Novel Bacteriophages From Environmental Samples.” During this course, students collected environmental water samples from the University of California Botanic Garden at Berkeley, learned basic microbiology laboratory techniques, isolated phages that infect lab-model E. coli bacteria, and learned genome sequencing of phages.
The course culminated in a poster presentation, where students shared their work and demonstrated the understanding of viral biology and laboratory techniques they mastered during the program.
Congratulations to this year’s BLDAP cohort and thank you to our Phage Foundry team for supporting another successful program!
Learn more about the Berkeley Lab Director’s Apprentice Program (BLDAP).
Phage Foundry Participates in the 2024 Berkeley Lab Director’s Apprentice Program (BLDAP)
By Madeline Svab and Isabella Murray
Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, exist in every place on earth where bacteria live. Since bacteria are so numerous on the planet, phages can be isolated from nearly anywhere—even student’s samples from outdoor spaces in their local community.
As a part of the Berkeley Lab Director’s Apprenticeship Program (BLDAP), a cohort of 21 high school students investigated bacteriophages during the summer of 2024 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. BLDAP is a project-based high school STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) program designed to help 10th and 11th grade students from local public high schools develop 21st century skills, learn about Berkeley Lab’s research activities, receive college and career guidance, and develop a STEM network in a real-life work environment.
Phage Foundry team members from the Mutalik Lab (Vivek Mutalik, principal investigator; Denish Piya, project scientist; Hemaa Selvakumar, postdoctoral researcher; Mohamad Alayouni, research associate; Madeline Svab, undergraduate researcher; and Isabella Murray, undergraduate researcher) led participants through an intensive, hands-on, multi-week program, titled the “Isolation of Novel Bacteriophages from Environmental Samples,” focused on phage education and wet lab techniques at Berkeley Lab in June – July 2024.
In the course, students collected environmental samples from the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens, which they then spent the following weeks processing to isolate novel bacteriophages from. This allowed students to learn hands-on microbiology skills that are essential for careers in microbiology fields and generate a foundation for other types of laboratory work students might choose to pursue in the future. In addition to learning crucial lab skills, students learned essential information about bacteria and viruses and how they interact to shape our world. Students also learned to form and answer their own scientific questions, imagining new ways bacteriophages can be applied to change the world they live in from applying phage therapy to vet care to climate work with bacteriophages.
The course culminated in a poster presentation, where students were able to demonstrate the understanding of viral biology and laboratory techniques they mastered during the course. Congratulations to the BLDAP students on their fantastic presentations!
Learn more about the Berkeley Lab Director’s Apprentice Program (BLDAP).
