Welkin’s primary research interests are in phage discovery and comparative genomics; as well as in the exploration of interesting and novel genome features through molecular and phage biology. To date, she has worked with phages of Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli, Bacillus megaterium, marine Synechococcus, marine Prochlorococcus, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Gordonia terrae, as well as some unknown hosts, and she is always happy to acquire new ones.
Welkin is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. She received a BS in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000 and a PhD in Biological Oceanography from the MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in 2005. Her graduate work was performed in the laboratory of Prof. Jonathan King at MIT, where she focused on the physical and genomic characterization of Syn5, a cyanophage of marine Synechococcus.
In 2005, she moved to Pittsburgh to work with Roger Hendrix and Graham Hatfull at the Pittsburgh Bacteriophage Institute at the University of Pittsburgh as a post-doctoral associate; she joined the faculty in 2012. With the adoption and nationalization of the SEA-PHAGES program, Welkin became highly involved in the scientific efforts and administration of the program. She is currently the Science Coordinator for SEA-PHAGES.
Welkin can be contacted at:
Department of Biological Sciences
4249 5th Avenue
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
(412) 624 3921
welkin@pitt.edu