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Texas A&M · Ramsey Lab · Center for Phage Technology
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<h1 class="hero-name"><span class="ink">Michael</span> <span class="gold">Baffour Awuah</span></h1>
<p class="hero-headline">I study how phage N4 decides <span class="accent">when to kill its host</span> — and identified a new regulator of that decision.</p>
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Experimental phage biologist working on lysis timing and host–phage interactions
in bacteriophage N4 — and building the open tools that make the work reproducible.
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<a href="cv-resume/Michael_Baffour_Awuah_CV.pdf" class="hero-cv-link" download>↓ Download CV</a>
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<span class="proof-kicker">First-author preprint</span> bioRxiv · 2025
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<span class="proof-kicker">FigureLab</span> used in published research
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<span class="proof-kicker">Patterson Fellowship</span> Texas A&M · 2025
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<span class="open-pulse" aria-hidden="true"></span>
Defending in 2027 and available for <strong>2027 starts</strong>. First choice:
a <strong>postdoc</strong> in phage or bacterial molecular genetics. Also open to
<strong>biotech R&D</strong>, <strong>translational research</strong>,
<strong>AI for science</strong> and <strong>scientific software</strong>.
<a href="#contact">Get in touch</a>.
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<div class="hero-stat-value">3</div>
<div class="hero-stat-label">Novel phages isolated & sequenced</div>
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<div class="hero-stat-value">700+</div>
<!-- "enrollments", not "students taught": the number sums
course rosters, and precision here costs nothing. -->
<div class="hero-stat-label">Enrollments · 9 courses</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="now-badge" id="nowBadge" aria-label="Current status">
<span class="now-icon now-dot" id="nowIcon" aria-hidden="true"></span>
<span class="now-text">
<span class="now-label">Currently</span>
<span class="now-body" id="nowBody">First-author N4 lysis preprint live on bioRxiv · building open tools for phage biology.</span>
</span>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<!-- ===== ABOUT ===== -->
<section class="section fade-in" id="about">
<div class="section-header">
<span class="section-label">Who I Am</span>
<h2 class="section-title">About <span class="highlight">Me</span></h2>
<p class="section-subtitle">Phage biologist at Texas A&M's Center for Phage Technology, working on how N4 times its lysis and building open tools alongside the bench.</p>
</div>
<div class="about-grid">
<div class="about-photo-area">
<div class="about-photo-ring">
<div class="about-photo-orbits" aria-hidden="true">
</div>
<div class="about-photo">
<img src="headshot.webp" alt="Michael Baffour Awuah" loading="lazy" width="480" height="480">
</div>
</div>
<dl class="about-glance" aria-label="At a glance">
<div><dt>Position</dt><dd>PhD candidate, Microbiology</dd></div>
<div><dt>Lab</dt><dd>Ramsey Lab, Center for Phage Technology, Texas A&M University</dd></div>
<div><dt>Focus</dt><dd>Lysis timing and host–phage interactions in bacteriophage N4</dd></div>
<div><dt>Defence</dt><dd>Expected 2027 · open to postdoc and industry roles</dd></div>
<div><dt>Email</dt><dd><a href="mailto:baffour@tamu.edu">baffour@tamu.edu</a></dd></div>
<div><dt>Profiles</dt><dd><a href="https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9036-413X" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ORCID</a> · <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=e5_h_2YAAAAJ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Scholar</a> · <a href="https://github.com/mbaffour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GitHub</a> · <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mba-101b/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn</a></dd></div>
<div><dt>CV</dt><dd><a href="cv-resume/Michael_Baffour_Awuah_CV.html">HTML</a> · <a href="cv-resume/Michael_Baffour_Awuah_CV.pdf" download>PDF</a></dd></div>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="about-text">
<p>Howdy! I'm a PhD candidate in Microbiology at Texas A&M University, in the
Ramsey Lab at the Center for Phage Technology. My project decodes
<em>lysis inhibition</em> in bacteriophage N4 — the phenomenon where a phage
senses that new hosts are scarce and holds the infected cell together,
turning it into a high-output virus factory instead of bursting it early.
Understanding how that decision is made is the part I can defend; where it
could lead — phage preparations made to order, and further out, programmable
microbial biofactories — is the part I want to work on next.</p>
<p>Alongside the wet lab I build open-source tools that make phage research
more reproducible, accessible, and efficient — every one of them started
as a real problem someone next to me hit,
and most are browser-based, privacy-first, and zero-install. I build them
with <strong>AI in the loop</strong>, and say so plainly. That is about the
software: the experiments, the analysis and the interpretation behind my
papers are mine. On the tools I own the problem, the method, the data
model, the edge cases, and what counts as a correct answer for a phage
experiment — and nothing ships until it reproduces a result I already trust
from my own bench. The
<a href="cv-resume/Michael_Baffour_Awuah_CV.html">full CV</a> has the education
and the complete skills list.</p>
<p>Outside the lab I play soccer most weeks, grew up on the Black Stars, and
built <a href="beyond.html#pitch-section">a starting XI out of the skills this PhD runs on</a>
because the metaphor was sitting right there.</p>
<div class="about-cv-actions">
<a href="journey.html" class="btn btn-primary"><svg class="btn-ico" width="15" height="15" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" aria-hidden="true"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10"/><path d="M16 8l-2.5 5.5L8 16l2.5-5.5z"/></svg> The journey</a>
<a href="cv-resume/Michael_Baffour_Awuah_CV.html" class="btn btn-secondary" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><svg class="btn-ico" width="15" height="15" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" aria-hidden="true"><path d="M14 2H6a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v16a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h12a2 2 0 0 0 2-2V8z"/><path d="M14 2v6h6"/></svg> HTML CV</a>
<a href="cv-resume/Michael_Baffour_Awuah_CV.pdf" class="btn btn-secondary" download><svg class="btn-ico" width="15" height="15" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" aria-hidden="true"><path d="M12 3v12"/><path d="M6 11l6 6 6-6"/><path d="M5 21h14"/></svg> CV (PDF)</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<hr class="section-divider">
<!-- ===== RESEARCH ===== -->
<section class="section fade-in" id="research">
<div class="section-header">
<span class="section-label">What I Study</span>
<h2 class="section-title">Research <span class="highlight">Focus</span></h2>
<p class="section-subtitle">Bridging molecular virology and engineering to unlock the potential of bacteriophages — from lysis decision-making to programmable biofactories.</p>
</div>
<div class="research-lead" style="background:linear-gradient(135deg, rgba(244,196,48,0.07), rgba(26,128,64,0.04)); border:1px solid var(--border-strong); border-radius:18px; padding:28px 30px; margin:0 auto 36px; max-width:880px;">
<p style="font-family:var(--font-mono); font-size:0.72rem; letter-spacing:0.16em; text-transform:uppercase; color:var(--gold); margin:0 0 10px;">The headline finding</p>
<p style="font-size:1.08rem; color:var(--ink); margin:0 0 14px; line-height:1.65;">Bacteriophage N4 deliberately delays lysing its host, turning each infected cell into a high-output virus factory that releases <strong>over 3,000 phage per cell</strong>, bursting asynchronously from about three hours post-infection rather than ending early with a fraction of that — the classic observation of Schito's ultrastructural study of N4 development (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.13.1.186-196.1974" target="_blank" rel="noopener">J Virol 1974</a>), at flask scale in a single host. My first-author preprint shows N4 lyses through a <strong>SAR endolysin–holin system</strong> and maps genomic regions — inside and outside the lysis cassette — involved in holding lysis off. Separately, my thesis work identified a novel regulator of that decision — an <strong>essential</strong> gene whose mutation drives the phage into rapid lysis, which is how we know it gates the timing. That manuscript is in preparation, so the gene itself stays unnamed here. The question isn't <em>when</em> a phage kills; it's <em>whether to give up the cell</em> — and N4 keeps choosing to hold on.</p>
<p style="font-size:0.96rem; color:var(--ink-2); margin:0; line-height:1.6;"><span style="color:var(--green-text); font-weight:600;">Where I'm taking it →</span> Reverse-engineering this timing switch into a control knob for high-titer phage production and programmable microbial biofactories, while shipping the open analysis tools that make those experiments reproducible for the whole field.</p>
<!-- Same type size and ink as the ambition above it. A caveat set in
smaller, dimmer text reads as a disclaimer; at equal weight it
reads as judgement, which is what it is. -->
<p style="font-family:var(--font-mono); font-size:0.72rem; letter-spacing:0.16em; text-transform:uppercase; color:var(--gold); margin:20px 0 10px;">What I have not done</p>
<p style="font-size:1.08rem; color:var(--ink); margin:0; line-height:1.65;">To be plain about the distance: this is mechanism, in a model <em>E. coli</em> phage, at flask scale. Turning a timing knob into a therapeutic preparation also takes host-range, manufacturing, purity and regulatory work I have not done — which is exactly the kind of group I want to join.</p>
<p style="font-size:0.9rem; margin:14px 0 0;"><a href="#playground" style="color:var(--gold);">Try the interactive lysis playground ↓</a> — tune the parameters and watch the curve respond.</p>
</div>
<div class="research-grid">
<div class="research-card" tabindex="0" role="button" aria-expanded="false">
<span class="research-icon" aria-hidden="true">
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<h3>Phage Biology</h3>
<p>Investigating lysis inhibition mechanisms in bacteriophage N4 and decoding how phages make temporal decisions during infection.</p>
<div class="research-tags">
<span class="research-tag">Lysis Inhibition</span>
<span class="research-tag">N4</span>
<span class="research-tag">Host–Pathogen</span>
</div>
<span class="research-more"><span class="chev">›</span> what this means</span>
<div class="research-detail"><p>This is my thesis. The published half: N4 lyses through a <em>SAR endolysin–holin</em> system, with genomic regions in and beyond the lysis cassette involved in delaying it (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.12.688109" target="_blank" rel="noopener">preprint</a>). The half still in preparation: a novel regulator of that timing decision — the work the Patterson Fellowship recognised. Together they reframe the question from <em>when</em> a phage kills to <em>whether it gives up the cell</em>.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="research-card" tabindex="0" role="button" aria-expanded="false">
<h3>Molecular Engineering</h3>
<p>Cloning, targeted knockouts and complementation to test which N4 genes gate lysis timing. <em>Future direction:</em> programmable microbial biofactories built from reverse-engineered viral machinery.</p>
<div class="research-tags">
<span class="research-tag">Cloning</span>
<span class="research-tag">Gene Knockouts</span>
<span class="research-tag">Protein Expression</span>
</div>
<span class="research-more"><span class="chev">›</span> what this means</span>
<div class="research-detail"><p>Cloning, targeted knockouts, complementation and protein expression to test which N4 genes gate lysis timing. Lysis timing sets burst size, so the same genes are the knobs a production process would turn — <em>that translation is the goal, not yet a result</em>.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="research-card" tabindex="0" role="button" aria-expanded="false">
<h3>Computational & ML Analysis</h3>
<p>RNA-seq and differential expression to read the transcriptomic landscape of phage–host interactions, plus trained models where counting by eye does not scale.</p>
<div class="research-tags">
<span class="research-tag">RNA-seq</span>
<span class="research-tag">DESeq2</span>
<span class="research-tag">ResNet-18</span>
<span class="research-tag">AlphaFold 3</span>
</div>
<span class="research-more"><span class="chev">›</span> what this means</span>
<div class="research-detail"><p>Mapping the N4 infection transcriptome with RNA-seq and DESeq2, wrapped in <em>reproducible pipelines</em> I package as tools so the analysis runs the same way every time. Where the bottleneck is counting rather than sequencing, I train and evaluate the model myself: the plaque-vs-texture classifier in Plaque Toolkit is a ResNet-18 trained on 15,659 boxes, scoring <em>F1 ≈ 0.95</em> leave-one-plate-out, and validated against hand-labelled plates (<em>r ≥ 0.99</em> on diameter, ICC 0.97 versus independent Fiji tracing). PooledPPI designs pooled AlphaFold 3 screens — predictions are hypotheses, and the top candidates are what I go back to the bench to test.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="research-card" tabindex="0" role="button" aria-expanded="false">
<h3>Phage Discovery</h3>
<p>Isolating and characterizing novel bacteriophages from the environment with classical microbiology, TEM, host-range profiling, and full genomics.</p>
<div class="research-tags">
<span class="research-tag">Phage Isolation</span>
<span class="research-tag">TEM</span>
<span class="research-tag">Host Range</span>
</div>
<span class="research-more"><span class="chev">›</span> what this means</span>
<div class="research-detail"><p>From plaque to TEM to full genome. This is how I isolated and characterized <em>Serwaa</em>, the novel phage behind my first paper, named after my grandmother. My undergraduate mentee Annie Koh joined the work and carried much of it with me.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<!-- The techniques were spread across four cards, a collapsed CV block and
page 2 of the PDF. A hiring manager screening for "can he run my
assays?" should not have to assemble that himself. Every clause here
already appears on the CV — this is consolidation, not new claims. -->
<div class="bench-card">
<div class="bench-head">
<span class="bench-kicker">At the bench</span>
<h3>What I run without supervision</h3>
</div>
<div class="bench-cols">
<div class="bench-col">
<h4>Phage & microbiology</h4>
<p>Isolation from environmental samples; plaque assays, titering, host-range
profiling and lysis-phenotype scoring; transmission electron microscopy;
lysis-timing experiments. BSL2 culture, 8+ years.</p>
</div>
<div class="bench-col">
<h4>Molecular & genomics</h4>
<p>DNA/RNA extraction, restriction analysis, PCR and cloning; CRISPR-based
deletion and complementation; genome sequencing, assembly, annotation and
public deposition (GenBank PX021331 · BioProject PRJNA222858 ·
SRA SRR34773693); RNA-seq with DESeq2.</p>
</div>
<div class="bench-col">
<h4>Protein & analytical</h4>
<p>Protein expression; BCA total-protein and LPS/endotoxin quantification in
phage lysates by LAL assay — the specification any phage preparation has
to clear before it goes near an animal or a patient; GFP/mCherry reporter
assays for real-time monitoring of lysis-protein expression.</p>
</div>
<div class="bench-col">
<h4>Clinical microbiology, before phage</h4>
<p>Antimicrobial susceptibility testing and MIC panels on drug-resistant
clinical isolates at WACCBIP, and diagnostic bench work at the Noguchi
Memorial Institute for Medical Research — the other side of the
resistance problem I now work on.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<hr class="section-divider">
<!-- ===== PUBLICATIONS ===== -->
<section class="section fade-in" id="publications">
<div class="section-header">
<span class="section-label">Papers & Preprints</span>
<h2 class="section-title"><span class="highlight">Publications</span></h2>
<p class="section-subtitle">A journal article and a first-author preprint on N4 lysis. Talks and posters are listed separately below.</p>
</div>
<ol class="pub-latest" aria-label="Latest">
<li><time datetime="2026-05-29">May 2026</time>
<span><em>Serwaa</em> genome announcement published in <em>Microbiol Resour Announc</em> ·
<a href="https://doi.org/10.1128/mra.01222-25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">doi:10.1128/mra.01222-25</a></span></li>
<li><time datetime="2025-11-12">Nov 2025</time>
<span>First-author preprint posted on bioRxiv ·
<a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.12.688109" target="_blank" rel="noopener">doi:10.1101/2025.11.12.688109</a></span></li>
<li><time datetime="2025-08">Aug 2025</time>
<span>Thomas L. Patterson Graduate Student Fellowship ·
<a href="#recognition">details ↓</a></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="pub-list" id="pubList"></div>
</section>
<hr class="section-divider">
<!-- ===== TALKS & POSTERS ===== -->
<section class="section fade-in" id="talks">
<div class="section-header">
<span class="section-label">Conferences & Symposia</span>
<h2 class="section-title">Talks & <span class="highlight">Posters</span></h2>
<p class="section-subtitle">Oral presentations and posters on N4 lysis inhibition. <span class="ledger-counts" id="talkCounts"></span></p>
</div>
<div class="talk-ledger" id="talkList"></div>
</section>
<hr class="section-divider">
<!-- ===== TOOLS ===== -->
<section class="section fade-in" id="tools">
<div class="section-header">
<span class="section-label">Open Source · Reproducible Phage Biology</span>
<h2 class="section-title">Research <span class="highlight">Software</span></h2>
<p class="section-subtitle">Every tool here came out of an N4 experiment I needed to finish — lysis curves, plaque scoring, figure assembly, sequence prep — and I shared them because other labs hit the same walls. Browser-first, privacy-first, reproducible by default. The heavier ones are not browser toys: HMM Homologue Finder ships as a CLI with a pinned environment (HMMER 3.4, MAFFT, IQ-TREE) and golden-file regression tests, so a result from last year still reproduces today. Eight are shown below; <strong>19 in total</strong>, the rest small utilities that do one job and stay out of the way.</p>
</div>
<!-- The strongest fact in this section leads it: another lab used the
software in work that got published. The hero's FigureLab chip
links here. -->
<figure class="section-quote" id="figurelab-quote">
<blockquote>
“…use of the <b>FigureLab</b> web-based application developed by
Michael Baffour Awuah…”
</blockquote>
<figcaption>
Hoxha EM, Brown GD, Niemiec KA, Ramsey J.
<em>The complete genome sequence of Caulobacter phages Senya and Shash.</em>
Microbiol Resour Announc 2026;15(8):e00457-26.
<a href="https://doi.org/10.1128/mra.00457-26" target="_blank" rel="noopener">doi ↗</a>
<span class="quote-zenodo">FigureLab is archived on Zenodo
(<a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21269456" target="_blank" rel="noopener">10.5281/zenodo.21269456 ↗</a>)
and every card below has a <em>Cite</em> button.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<!-- Stated as practice, not as confession. The claim that carries it is
the verification, not the disclosure. -->
<aside class="build-note">
<span class="build-note-kicker">How these get built</span>
<p>AI in the loop, deliberately, for the tool code — the way I would expect anyone
building software alongside a full experimental schedule to work now. The
decisions that determine whether the output is right stay mine: the problem, the
method, the data model, what happens at the edges, and what <em>correct</em>
means for a phage experiment. AI speeds up the typing, not the judgement.
What makes the result trustworthy is the checking:
HMM Homologue Finder carries golden-file regression tests so last
year's answer still reproduces today, every tool is validated against
experiments whose answers I already knew, and FigureLab was used by another lab
in a published paper before I would call it finished.</p>
</aside>
<div class="pub-filters" id="toolFilters"></div>
<div class="card-grid" id="toolsGrid"></div>
</section>
<hr class="section-divider">
<!-- ===== TEACHING & MENTORING ===== -->
<section class="section fade-in" id="teaching">
<div class="section-header">
<span class="section-label">Teaching · Mentoring</span>
<h2 class="section-title">Teaching & <span class="highlight">Mentoring</span></h2>
<p class="section-subtitle">Nine courses taught across two universities, and ten undergraduate researchers trained at the bench.</p>
</div>
<div class="teach-grid">
<div class="teach-block">
<h3 class="teach-heading">Courses taught</h3>
<div class="teach-table-wrap">
<table class="teach-table">
<caption class="sr-only">Courses taught, with enrolment, term and institution</caption>
<thead>
<tr><th scope="col">Course</th><th scope="col">Students</th><th scope="col">Term</th><th scope="col">Institution</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>BIOL 111 — Intro Biology I</td><td>48</td><td>Fall 2022</td><td>Texas A&M</td></tr>
<tr><td>BIOL 112 — Intro Biology II</td><td>48</td><td>Spring 2023</td><td>Texas A&M</td></tr>
<tr><td>Enzyme Action & Catalysis</td><td>169</td><td>Fall 2021</td><td>U. Cape Coast</td></tr>
<tr><td>Biochemical Techniques (Mini Project)</td><td>5</td><td>Fall 2021</td><td>U. Cape Coast</td></tr>
<tr><td>General Biochemistry Practical</td><td>209</td><td>Fall 2020</td><td>U. Cape Coast</td></tr>
<tr><td>Biological Oxidation & Bioenergetics</td><td>169</td><td>Fall 2020</td><td>U. Cape Coast</td></tr>
<tr><td>Biochemical Techniques I</td><td>150</td><td>Fall 2020</td><td>U. Cape Coast</td></tr>
<tr><td>Diversity of Living Organisms</td><td>Class of 2023</td><td>Fall 2020</td><td>U. Cape Coast</td></tr>
<tr><td>Biostatistics</td><td>Class of 2022</td><td>Fall 2020</td><td>U. Cape Coast</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p class="teach-note">Microteaching mentor for incoming teaching assistants, Department of Biology, Texas A&M (2023 & 2024).</p>
</div>
<div class="teach-block">
<h3 class="teach-heading">Undergraduate researchers mentored</h3>
<ul class="mentee-list">
<li><span class="mentee-name">Annie Koh</span><span class="mentee-proj">Characterization of three <em>E. coli</em> 4s phages</span><span class="mentee-where">Texas A&M</span></li>
<li><span class="mentee-name">Philip Lotaire</span><span class="mentee-proj">N4 lysis inhibition, host specificity & receptor discovery</span><span class="mentee-where">Texas A&M</span></li>
<li><span class="mentee-name">Matthew Fan</span><span class="mentee-proj">Mechanism of action of bacteriocins</span><span class="mentee-where">Texas A&M</span></li>
<li><span class="mentee-name">Teja Vemulapalli</span><span class="mentee-proj">Bacteriophage N4 lysis inhibition</span><span class="mentee-where">Texas A&M</span></li>
<li><span class="mentee-name">Bridget Ahema Agyemang</span><span class="mentee-proj">Phytochemical evaluation of <em>Garcinia kola</em></span><span class="mentee-where">U. Cape Coast</span></li>
<li><span class="mentee-name">Bertha Klenam Hamenu</span><span class="mentee-proj">Phytochemical evaluation of <em>Garcinia kola</em></span><span class="mentee-where">U. Cape Coast</span></li>
<li><span class="mentee-name">Ekow Etwire</span><span class="mentee-proj">Phytochemical evaluation of <em>Garcinia kola</em></span><span class="mentee-where">U. Cape Coast</span></li>
<li><span class="mentee-name">Samuel Ofosu</span><span class="mentee-proj">Phytochemical evaluation of <em>Garcinia kola</em></span><span class="mentee-where">U. Cape Coast</span></li>
<li><span class="mentee-name">Emmanuel Luri</span><span class="mentee-proj">Phytochemical evaluation of <em>Garcinia kola</em></span><span class="mentee-where">U. Cape Coast</span></li>
<li><span class="mentee-name">Christian Okine</span><span class="mentee-proj">Phytochemical evaluation of <em>Garcinia kola</em></span><span class="mentee-where">U. Cape Coast</span></li>
</ul>
<p class="teach-note">Judge, Texas Junior Science & Humanities Symposium (Jan 2025) · Judge, SACNAS Diversity in Science Symposium (Apr 2024).</p>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<hr class="section-divider">
<!-- ===== RECOGNITION & SERVICE ===== -->
<section class="section fade-in" id="recognition">
<div class="section-header">
<span class="section-label">Awards · Service · Mentoring</span>
<h2 class="section-title">Recognition <span class="highlight">& Service</span></h2>
<p class="section-subtitle">Awards, outreach, judging, and the trainees I've had the privilege of working alongside.</p>
</div>
<!-- Featured award: Patterson Fellowship -->
<div class="rec-hero">
<div class="rec-hero-photo">
<img src="patterson-card.webp" alt="Receiving the Thomas L. Patterson Fellowship at CPT, Texas A&M" loading="lazy" width="700" height="620">
<span class="rec-hero-tag">August 2025 · Fellowship</span>
</div>
<div class="rec-hero-body">
<span class="rec-hero-icon">🏆</span>
<h3 class="rec-hero-title">Thomas L. Patterson Graduate Student Fellowship</h3>
<p>Awarded by the Center for Phage Technology at Texas A&M — established by Dr. Steffanie Strathdee and Dr. Thomas Patterson following CPT's landmark involvement in phage therapy in the US.</p>
<a class="rec-link" href="https://cpt.tamu.edu/michael-awuah-awarded-2025-thomas-l-patterson-graduate-student-fellowship/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read announcement ↗</a>
</div>
</div>
<div class="rec-grid">
<div class="rec-card talks" style="--accent: var(--gold);">
<span class="rec-icon">🎤</span>
<div class="rec-date">2024</div>
<h3>Invited Lectures & Talks</h3>
<p>Three oral presentations on phage N4 lysis inhibition: the Bio & Chem Sciences Symposium, the Texas ASM Branch Meeting, and BIOGSA.</p>
<a class="rec-link" href="#gallery">See gallery ↓</a>
</div>
<div class="rec-card mentor" style="--accent: var(--red);">
<span class="rec-icon">🧫</span>
<div class="rec-date">2022 – Present</div>
<h3>Graduate Mentor — Texas A&M</h3>
<p>Four undergraduates have worked with me during my PhD — <strong>Annie Koh</strong>, <strong>Philip Lotaire</strong>, <strong>Matthew Fan</strong> and <strong>Teja Vemulapalli</strong> — and ten in total, counting six I mentored at Cape Coast. Two continue with me in the Ramsey Lab today; one is now in a biology PhD program; one is applying to medical school.</p>
<a class="rec-link" href="#contact">Get in touch ↗</a>
</div>
<div class="rec-card service" style="--accent: var(--green);">
<span class="rec-icon">🔬</span>
<div class="rec-date">Annual</div>
<h3>Darwin Day Outreach</h3>
<p>Public-facing science outreach demonstrating phage biology and evolutionary microbiology to K-12 students and the broader community at Texas A&M's Darwin Day events.</p>
</div>
<div class="rec-card service" style="--accent: var(--green);">
<span class="rec-icon">⚖️</span>
<div class="rec-date">Jan 2025</div>
<h3>Texas JSHS Judging</h3>
<p>Judge for the Texas Junior Science & Humanities Symposium — evaluating high-school research projects and providing feedback to the next generation of scientists.</p>
</div>
<div class="rec-card service" style="--accent: var(--green);">
<span class="rec-icon">🌎</span>
<div class="rec-date">Apr 2024</div>
<h3>SACNAS Diversity in Science Judge</h3>
<p>Judge at the SACNAS Diversity in Science Symposium — evaluating undergraduate and graduate research presentations and supporting underrepresented scientists.</p>
</div>
<div class="rec-card award" style="--accent: var(--gold);">
<span class="rec-icon">🎟️</span>
<div class="rec-date">2023 – 2024</div>
<h3>Travel & Conference Awards</h3>
<p>Molecular Genetics of Bacteria & Phages Meeting registration waivers (2024 · $525; 2023 · $500), and the BIOGSA Engagement Scholarship (2023 · $250) from the TAMU Department of Biology.</p>
</div>
<div class="rec-card service" style="--accent: var(--green);">
<span class="rec-icon">🎪</span>
<div class="rec-date">2023–2024</div>
<h3>Community & Phage Outreach</h3>
<p>Darwin Day demos, Phage Princess & Phage Pirate cardboard outreach, K–12 visits, and microteaching mentorship for new TAs in the TAMU Biology department.</p>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<hr class="section-divider">
<!-- ===== INTERACTIVE LYSIS PLAYGROUND ===== -->
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<span class="section-label">Interactive</span>
<h2 class="section-title">Lysis Curve <span class="highlight">Playground</span></h2>
<p class="section-subtitle">Run a phage infection and watch it unfold, stage by stage. A normal phage bursts on cue. N4 senses superinfection and holds the cell hostage, keeping the culture cloudy. Drag the controls, then hit play.</p>
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<span class="pg-stage-badge" id="pgStageNum">1</span>
<span class="pg-stage-name" id="pgStageName">Adsorption & injection</span>
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<p class="pg-stage-text" id="pgStageText">The phage docks onto a receptor on the cell surface and injects its genome. The host is now infected.</p>
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<div class="playground-meta" id="playgroundMeta">
<span>Superinfection pressure: <strong id="metaPressure">—</strong></span>
<span>Outcome: <strong id="metaOutcome">—</strong></span>
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<span><span class="playground-legend-dot" style="background:#1f9249"></span>Uninfected control</span>
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<span class="val" id="valInhibit">70%</span>
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<span>Burst size</span>
<span class="val" id="valBurst">1500</span>
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<span>MOI</span>
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<span class="tf-callout-text">
<span class="tf-callout-kicker">Also interactive · arcade game</span>
<span class="tf-callout-title">TailFiber — dock to the right receptor, dodge the defences, burst.</span>
<span class="tf-callout-body">A browser game built on real phage biology: LPS, OmpC, LamB, type IV pili and NfrA as receptors; antibodies, CRISPR and restriction as the enemies; T4, λ, N4 and ICP1 as playable phages. Arrow keys, WASD or a thumb joystick.</span>
<span class="tf-callout-cta">Play TailFiber →</span>
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<h3 class="pg-builds-title">Other tools I've built</h3>
<div class="card-grid" id="homeBuildsGrid"></div>
<p class="pg-more-note">Every side build — including <strong>TailFiber</strong>, the phage arcade game — lives on the <a href="builds.html">other tools page</a>.</p>
</section>
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<!-- ===== BLOG / WEEKLY NOTES ===== -->
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<h2 class="section-title">Life in the <span class="highlight">Lab</span></h2>
<p class="section-subtitle">Whiteboards, the bench, conferences, and outreach. The science doesn't happen in a vacuum.</p>
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<!-- ===== OFF THE PITCH (teaser; the piece lives on beyond.html) ===== -->
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<h2 class="section-title">Off the <span class="highlight">Pitch</span></h2>
<p class="section-subtitle">I play soccer. Badly, enthusiastically, and most weeks — which turns out to be the same way I do science.</p>
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<div class="beyond-teaser">
<a class="beyond-card" href="beyond.html">
<span class="beyond-art beyond-art-pitch" aria-hidden="true"><span>4-3-3</span></span>
<span class="beyond-text">
<span class="beyond-kicker">The starting XI</span>
<span class="beyond-title">Every skill this PhD runs on, lined up in a 4-3-3</span>
<span class="beyond-body">Ghanaian football, pickup games in College Station, and why the habits transfer: you play the pass that's on, you spend most of the match without the ball, and the players worth having track back when the experiment fails. Click a shirt to read the scouting report.</span>
<span class="beyond-cta">Read it →</span>
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<h2 class="section-title">Get in <span class="highlight">Touch</span></h2>
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