Imperial team receives about £2.7 million Wellcome Discovery Award to study cf-PICIs and antibiotic resistance

A team of Imperial scientists from Life Sciences and Medicine has received approximately £2.7 million through a Wellcome Trust Discovery Award to study capsid-forming phage-inducible chromosomal islands (cf-PICIs), which release tail-less capsids that can later acquire phage tails from unrelated bacteria and transfer virulence and antibiotic-resistance genes. Led by Dr Tiago da Costa, Dr Julie McDonald and Professor José Penadés, the programme will explore cf-PICI interactions with diverse phage tails, including engineering chimeric particles that selectively target harmful bacteria or resistance genes.