Student Presenter(s): Alana James, Subaita Almobin, Amna Zulfiqar, Muhammad Khan, Nishwa Nawaz
Faculty Mentor: Bryan Gibb
Department: Biological and Chemical Sciences
School/College: College of Arts and Sciences, Long Island

Infections caused by resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, including MRSA (Methicillin resistant S. aureus) are becoming increasingly difficult to treat with antibiotics. S. aureus is found on human skin and in the environment, including wastewater. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. Due to increasing antibiotic resistance among community and hospital isolates of S. aureus, researchers are experimenting with alternative treatment options like phage therapy. Wastewater is home to many microbes, including S. aureus, so we hypothesized that it may be a good source of bacteriophages that can infect S.aureus and resistant strains such as MRSA. We have isolated several Staphylococcal phages from wastewater samples collected from the NYIT wastewater treatment facility over the past three years. These phages are currently being characterized for the ability to infect and kill several strains of S. aureus, imaged by transmission electron microscopy, having the genomes sequenced. Given the abundance of phages in the environment, each bacteriophage we have isolated may be a novel phage and with the potential to be good therapeutic candidates for phage therapy in treating S. aureus infection.