During my first internship in Penn State University, I was mentored by Dr. Dudley in the research called “Characterization of Ethiopian and Pennsylvanian E. coli isolates”. These samples were obtained from a children’s hospital in Pennsylvania and from a farm in Ethiopia. In this research, we examined E. coli isolates and learned how to use the MiSeq machine. Once the data was uploaded to the website, we looked for the strains’ genes. Our focus were the genes that caused resistance to antibiotics. We came to a conclusion that the Pennsylvanian isolates had antibiotic resistance and the Ethiopian isolates didn’t. The Pennsylvanian ones caused diseases while the Ethiopian ones didn’t. In this research I learned a lot in the area of Microbiology.

Mentor: Dr. Dudley