Nancy Castro

Nancy Castro is a Lecturer at the University of Southern California, serving as Primary Instructor for the HHMI Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) program. Her contact email is ncastro@usc.edu.

Since Fall 2021, Dr. Castro has taught 17 course sections across fall and spring semesters, with enrollments ranging from 9 to 21 students per section (totaling over 300 undergraduates). Each 3-hour weekly session focuses on in silico phage genomics and bioinformatics using bacterial hosts including Microbacterium foliorum, Mycobacterium smegmatis, and Arthrobacter species. Student cohorts predominantly consist of sophomores and juniors, though all undergraduate levels participate.

Her research and teaching interests center on bacteriophage genomic analysis, with emphasis on viral evolutionary biology and computational annotation techniques. Through the SEA-PHAGES curriculum, she guides students in genome sequencing, comparative genomics, and host-phage interaction modeling, contributing to national phage databases like PhagesDB.

As an active participant in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)-funded SEA network, Dr. Castro collaborates with over 100 institutions in this course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). Her teaching directly supports students in authentic scientific discovery, from phage isolation to genomic submission via the Sequence Read Archive (SRA). While specific grant details are unreported, her multi-year involvement reflects sustained commitment to HHMI's science education mission.