Undergraduates
MSU programs can fund undergraduate research in the lab. Starting early leaves time for a real project.
Join & contact
Join the Wiedenheft Lab
We welcome inquiries from undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in how bacteria and archaea defend themselves from phages, and how phages subvert those defenses. Lab members learn bioinformatics, phage biology, biochemistry and cryo-EM, and use them together on open questions.
How to apply
Write to Blake
Email Blake Wiedenheft at bwiedenheft@gmail.com and include:
- Your research interests, and what draws you to this lab
- Your experience so far
- A CV with your education and any publications
- Contact information for your references
Contact
Reach the lab
- Principal investigator
- Dr. Blake Wiedenheft
bwiedenheft@gmail.com - Phone
- (406) 994-5009
- Mailing and shipping
- Wiedenheft Lab
109 Lewis Hall
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717
By career stage
Routes into the lab
Graduate students
Apply to the Microbiology & Cell Biology PhD, either directly once Blake has agreed to mentor you, or through the rotation route (three lab rotations before choosing a lab). The Molecular Biosciences Program also offers a first year of three rotations, with a stipend, before you join a department.
Fellowships worth applying for:
Postdocs
Postdoctoral fellowships that fit work in this lab:
All 52 funding opportunities from the old Funding page
Carried over as listed; deadlines change each year, so check each program.
Early Career
Postdoctoral
- List of Postdoctoral Funding Opportunities (Compliments of JHU)
- Life Sciences Research Foundation
- Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship (Parent F32)
- Postdoctoral research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB)
- The Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Research Fellowship
- Hannah H. Gray Fellows Program
- Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Michelson Prizes: Next Generation Grants
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund CASI grants
Graduate Student
- List of Graduate Student Funding Opportunities (Compliments of JHU)
- List of Graduate Student Funding Opportunities (Compliments of NCSU)
- August Deadlines
- NHGRI Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Transition Award for a Diverse Genomics Workforce (F99/K00)
- September/October Deadlines
- American Educational Research Association Dissertation Grants
- Fulbright Fellowships for International Study
- GEM Fellowships
- Microsoft Research PhD Fellowships
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships
- Spencer Dissertation Fellowship
- Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowships in Women’s Studies
- November Deadlines
- American Association of University Women (AAUW) Fellowships
- Ford Foundation Fellowships
- National Physical Science Consortium Graduate Fellowships
- Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships
- Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans
- Social Science Research Council (SSRC) International Dissertation Research Fellowships
- December Deadlines
- Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) Scholarships
- International Peace Scholarship
- NSF Graduate Research Internship Program (GRIP) at the EPA
- National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowships
- NHGRI Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Transition Award for a Diverse Genomics Workforce (F99/K00)
- NIH Blueprint and BRAIN Initiative Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience (D-SPAN) Award
- UW ITHS TL1 Translational Research Training Program
- January Deadlines
- American Meteorological Society Graduate Fellowships
- Computational Science Graduate Fellowships
- DOE NNSA Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship
- Meta Research PhD Fellowship Program
- Link Foundation Fellowships in Advanced Simulation and Training
- National Security Education Program (NSEP) Boren Graduate Fellowships
- Smithsonian Institution Fellowships
- February Deadlines
- Dr. John Jutila Fellowship
- Ferguson Graduate Student Award
- EPA National Network for Environmental Management Studies (NNEMS) Fellowships
- Jefferson Science Associates (JSA)/Jefferson Lab Graduate Fellowships
- National Research Council (NRC) Research Associateships
- March/April/June Deadlines
- Shaver Hitchings Scholarships
- WREI Congressional Fellowships on Women and Public Policy
- NHGRI Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Transition Award for a Diverse Genomics Workforce (F99/K00)
- NIH Blueprint and BRAIN Initiative Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience (D-SPAN) Award
Undergraduate
Training
What you'll learn
Lab members are trained across computation, phage experiments, biochemistry and structure.
- BioinformaticsProfile searches, phylogenetic trees, genome-neighborhood analysis and TreeMapper
- Phage biologyPlaque and spot assays, efficiency of plating and phage isolation
- BiochemistryProtein purification and nuclease and binding assays, with the lab's shared protocols
- Cryo-EMFrom grids and data collection to cryoSPARC, RELION and model building in Phenix, ChimeraX and ISOLDE
- ComputingWorking on MSU's Tempest cluster and the lab's Lewis server from the command line
Why here
What the lab offers
4 approaches
Bioinformatics, phage biology, biochemistry, cryo-EM
Projects combine genome searches with phage experiments, biochemistry and cryo-EM structures, so you learn all of them.
128 cores
Computing
The lab's Lewis server (128 cores, 22 TB, a 10 Gb/s link to MSU storage) and MSU's Tempest cluster for image processing.
14 guides
Lab handbook
The lab handbook covers TreeMapper, bench protocols, computing, and cryo-EM from grids to models in cryoSPARC, RELION, Phenix and ChimeraX.
TreeMapper
Software
The lab builds software it needs, like TreeMapper for comparing phylogenetic trees with gene neighborhoods and experimental data.
3 Goldwater Scholars
Undergraduate research
Undergraduates co-author papers. Three have won Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships while working in the lab (2021 and 2023).
7 faculty
Alumni on faculty
Former members now run labs at Penn, Florida, Utah State, Carroll College and MSU. See where everyone went.
Culture
Lab values and mentoring
Undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs work side by side on the same projects, and everyone learns the computation, phage biology, biochemistry and cryo-EM those projects need. Undergraduates co-author papers: three have won Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships while working in the lab, mentored by Blake Wiedenheft, Royce Wilkinson and Andrew Santiago-Frangos. Former members now run their own labs at Penn, Florida, Utah State, Carroll College and MSU.
Highlights
Student awards
- 2023Ava Graham won a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for her work on a CRISPR-based diagnostic for RNA viruses, mentored by Royce Wilkinson.
- 2023Ava Graham and Lenny Triem presented their diagnostic work at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.
- 2021Laina Hall and Pushya Krishna won Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships, mentored by Blake Wiedenheft and Andrew Santiago-Frangos.