Cathy Nguyen has been interested in bacteriophages since her undergraduate years at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC where she obtained a BSci in Biology. She continued her education with a MS in Biomedical Sciences from Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, SC where she studied and worked collaboratively with Guild BioSciences (GBS), a local biotech company focused on phage diagnostics. After graduation, she continued working with GBS as a research specialist, focusing on genetically modified reporter phages for environmental and clinical samples. Currently, she works as a product development lab technologist at Charles River Laboratories in Charleston, SC.