Mycobacterium phage Celfi and Lactobacillus phage Lbab1

Between 2015-2019, we have hosted an International Phage Course at School of Exact and NaturalSciences, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The two-week course was full time, hands-on andincluded lectures from renowned phage biologists. Participating students were able to meet and discusswith recognized experts from around the world, which has facilitated the establishment of scientificcollaborations and expansion of their network. Overall, eighty-four students from fourteen LatinAmerican countries have participated in the course, which included isolation, characterization, genomesequencing and annotation of various novel phages. Here we describe the characterization of two ofthose phages. Mycobacterium phage Celfi was isolated from a soil sample using M. smegmatis as hostand Lactobacillus phage Lbab1 was isolated and amplified from raw milk using Lactobacillus casei. Wehave successfully created a coursework that enables the expansion of knowledge and expertise inbacteriophage biology, as well as strengthened ties among Latin American colleagues.