Issue 203
C&T Round Up for November 2022!
Happy December, everyone. I hope you've all enjoyed your Thanksgiving! Jessica and I took a short break in New Zealand and it was sublime. This past month, we featured an article by Adam Yang that explored COVID-19 and phages. We also featured a series by Ruby Lin, thoroughly exploring what a sustainable phage therapy ecosystem could look like.
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Community digest5updates6jobs2posts
Updates
The FDA approved Rebyota, the first fecal microbiota product, for the prevention of recurrence of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) in individuals 18 years of age and older. Rebyota is administered rectally as a single dose and is prepared from stool donated by qualified individuals.
Innovate UK KTN has launched the Phage Innovation Network to drive innovation in the regulation and development of phage technologies for applications across multiple sectors, ensuring the UK maintains its strong stance on tackling antimicrobial resistance. If you would like to get involved please reach out to Francesca Hodges on francesca.hodges@iuk.ktn-uk.org.
In a new paper in Viruses, Fedor Zurabov (MicroMir, Russia) and colleagues report that phage cocktails were safely administered to thirty patients after COVID-19.
In a new paper in Viruses, Maik Wolfram-Schauerte and colleagues (Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology) apply transcriptomics and proteomics to characterize the temporal patterns of transcription and protein synthesis during T4 phage infection of E. coli.
Panagiotis Zagaliotis (Weill Cornell Medicine New York) and colleagues published a new review in Pathogens and Immunity on the therapeutic phages for Gram-negative bacterial infections in animals and humans.
Jobs
The Infection Biology of Bacterial Viruses group at MSB Medical School Berlin is looking to fill a PhD position in the area of bacteriophage infection of biofilms.
The University of Southampton and UKHSA are looking for a PhD student to work on a project investigating phage mitigation of Klebsiella pneumoniae infection.
The Catalan Institute for Water Research, Spain is seeking a postdoctoral researcher to work on the reclaimONEwater project, which focuses on two main topics: (i) the fate of antibiotic resistance genes in physico-chemical treatment; (ii) the use of naturally occurring phages as viral surrogates.
The University of Stuttgart is looking for a candidate to fill the PhD position “Cryo-Atom Probe Tomography of Bio-Materials” to perform experiments with cryo-preparation, atom probe tomography, and aberration-corrected TEM. The aim is to quench-freeze genetically modified phages embedded in aqueous solution and make them accessible to measurement with the atom probe.
The Institute of Translational Medicine for Health Care Systems (ITM) at MSB Medical School Berlin is looking to hire a postdoctoral researcher to study the biophysics of phage infection in their work group 'Infection Biology of Bacterial Viruses'.
The Forschungszentrum Jülich is looking for a PhD student to work on prokaryotic virus-host interaction in the group of Prof. Dr. Julia Frunzke. The focus will be on novel antiviral (antiphage) strategies of bacteria, including the role of secondary metabolites and their mode of action in phage defense.
Community board
Phages for Global Health is planning to deliver hands-on phage workshops in Africa and Asia again, with a new curriculum that incorporates the best parts of the virtual teaching from the past year into an updated workshop curriculum with 2 components:
- A series of virtual lectures through which phage experts from around the world will teach the key aspects of phage biology and discuss potential antibacterial applications of phages in crops, aquaculture, animals and people
- An in-person training during which the participants will practice isolating phages from local environments in Africa and Asia and begin characterizing them
Their goal is to deliver two trainings in 2023: one for scientists from Southeast Asia and one for those in West Africa. In order to accomplish that, we need to raise the necessary funds. Please consider partnering with Phages for Global Health by making a tax deductible donation!
The Africa Phage Forum will be hosting a webinar on December 6th, 2022 at 3:00 PM East Africa Time (EAT) or 12 PM GMT. The webinar, titled 'Safety Evaluation of Phages Infecting Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae for Therapy in Low-Resource Settings', will be given by Dr Noutin F. Michodigni, Ph.D. Register here.
Here's what we published this month!
Send us your thoughts, comments or questions (or write for us!) by email!
White Paper: Building a sustainable ecosystem for phage therapy
In Ruby's series (and white paper) on phage sustainability, she discusses the potential of phage therapy as an alternative to traditional antibiotic treatments and the need for a sustainable ecosystem for its implementation. She outlines potential revenue streams, including phage manufacturing and production, clinical services, biobanking, and database/data management platform services, and discusses the benefits of phage therapy, such as cost savings and improved patient outcomes. The series and paper also focuses on the need for digitalization, centralised governance, standardised protocols, and good data management to ensure the success of a sustainable phage therapy ecosystem.
- Read the entire White Paper on the Phage Australia website
- Read Part 1 on Capsid & Tail
- Read Part 2 on Capsid & Tail
- Read Part 3 on Capsid & Tail
The secret killer behind COVID-19 and the potential remedy
by Adam Yang
In this article, Adam discusses how phage therapy could address COVID-19-related secondary bacterial infection (SBI), which is a major contributor to the high mortality rate. The article mentions a case-series study using phage therapy against SBI induced by COVID-19, current bottlenecks, and possible delivery methods to overcome these bottlenecks.
Throwback: Pharmacists and phage therapy: two pharmacy students weigh in
by Christine Thompson and Yasmine Bendimrad September 4, 2020
In this issue, Christine and Yasmine discuss their interest in becoming infectious disease pharmacists and the concept of phage therapy. The article explains that infectious disease pharmacists are experts in determining which antimicrobial drugs and doses should be used in the treatment of patients with infections. It also discusses the need for antimicrobial stewardship programs and the potential of phage therapy as an alternative to traditional antibiotic treatments.
Jan Zheng, MHCI
I'm Jan, the other half of Phage Directory, and co-write Capsid & Tail.
Previously, I did data work at Phage Australia / Westmead Institute, where I built the biobank databases, data systems, and bioinformatics workflows for the clinical trial
I have a background in computer science and human-computer interaction, and I'm currently full-time at building the agentic layer for science at Nvidia.