SEA-Phages Personal Statement

Beginning in September of 2020, as a phage researcher in the SEA-PHAGES program under the supervision of Dr. Susan Gurney and Dr. Brett Condon, I worked with other members of the team to isolate a bacteriophage that had never been discovered. I then utilized bioinformatics to study the virus’ DNA sequence, and this culminated in a poster presentation at the National SEA-PHAGES symposium as well as a publication titled “Isolation and characterization of Microbacterium phages through a virtual lab experience." This experience taught me the importance of meticulous attention to detail in research, and I had the honor of learning how scientific experiments are performed by two distinguished and knowledgeable professors. I will work hard to apply this same attention to detail to my time as a

Dr. Gurney can be contacted at [e-mail] and Dr. Brett Condon can be reached at [e-mail]. The SEA-PHAGES experience was later followed by working with Dr. Manuel Seman-Senderos in SEA-GENES. I continued the work that I did in SEA-PHAGES by evaluating the genes of a chosen phage and evaluating the phage’s relationship with its host. My work in the SEA-GENES program concluded in June of 2023 and the program overall taught me the importance of consistent work in a lab and given the fact that my work required multiple years to complete, it taught me the importance of committing to one’s work and always making sure to do one’s job as well as possible as this is the only way to yield good results. This impacted my career path by reminding me that it is always important to put one’s all into what one does, and I hope to put everything I can into treating every single patient that I meet. Dr. Manuel Seman-Senderos is my supervisor and can be contacted at