معرفی
Timothy Breton serves as an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Maine at Farmington, actively teaching the SEA-PHAGES program's BIO 177 course (Phage Hunters) since Fall 2016. His instruction spans both in situ (phage discovery/microbiology) and in silico (genomics/bioinformatics) components using hosts Mycobacterium smegmatis and Gordonia terrae.
His research integrates bacteriophage genomics with undergraduate education, focusing on phage discovery and computational analysis. Over five course sections (2016-2019), he mentored 56 students—primarily freshmen—in authentic research experiences involving phage isolation, sequencing, and bioinformatics annotation.
Each section follows a rigorous 6-hour/week structure with three weekly meetings, enabling students to contribute to genomic databases through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's collaborative network. Dr. Breton's work emphasizes hands-on training in microbial evolution and genomic techniques within the SEA-PHAGES framework.
