Catherine Putonti PhD

Catherine Putonti, Ph.D. working with undergraduate and graduate students in both biology and computer science labs. Putonti, the Bioinformatics Program director, has taught biology and computer science classes throughout her 11 years at Loyola. She is currently mentoring 12 students and has earned numerous awards throughout her tenure, most recently receiving the 2018 Computing Research Association’s Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award.

Putonti worked with Alan Wolfe, professor of microbiology, and a team of undergraduate students to recently author a report in the Journal of Bacteriology that shares how phages viruses that infect bacteria are abundant in the bacteria that inhabit the female bladder. The study could potentially show how bacteriophages can be used as alternatives to antibiotics. We asked Putonti to share some insight into her career path and why it’s important to encourage more women to enter the STEM fields.