Voorhees Univ secures SCICU grant for AI bacteriophage research

Voorhees University's Center of Excellence for Research and Program Innovation (CERPI) has secured a Faculty-Student Research Grant from South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (SCICU) for a project formally titled "Computational Evaluation of AI-Guided Design for Bacteriophage Development," with student researcher Darell Barnes and Dr. Zhabiz Golkar leading the work at the Denmark campus.

The project applies artificial intelligence to the design of bacteriophages, viruses that target and destroy bacteria. As antibiotic-resistant infections continue to pose a mounting public health challenge, phage therapy has emerged as one of the most actively studied alternatives to conventional antibiotics. By using computational tools to evaluate AI-guided bacteriophage design, the Voorhees team aims to advance a more precise approach to combating drug-resistant pathogens.

CERPI received SCICU research awards totaling $17,267.47 for the 2025-2026 academic year, covering three separate faculty-student projects. All three are under Dr. Golkar's direction as principal investigator and research advisor. The AI bacteriophage study runs alongside two companion projects: one exploring bacteriophages as a targeted acne therapy and another investigating connections between the oral microbiome and Parkinson's disease.

Dr. Golkar currently serves as a tenured professor of biology and dean of the School of Science, Technology, Health, and Human Services at Voorhees University. Her published research spans bacteriophage isolation, CRISPR gene editing, and multidrug-resistant pathogen analysis, and SCICU recognized her with its Excellence in Teaching Award in 2017.

The funding is provided by the Belle W. Baruch Foundation and sponsored by SCICU. "These projects not only enrich the academic experience for our students but also place Voorhees University at the forefront of undergraduate biomedical research in South Carolina," Dr. Golkar said. "We are grateful to SCICU and the Belle W. Baruch Foundation for their continued investment in student success and innovation."

For Barnes, the grant places him at the intersection of two of the fastest-moving fields in biomedicine while still a student in Bamberg County. Voorhees, a historically Black university in Denmark, now has CERPI managing concurrent projects in antibiotic alternatives, neurodegenerative disease, and AI-assisted drug design, all funded within a single academic year.