News

Tulane Ventures has invested $250,000 in Biophoundry, a Tulane University spinout developing engineered phage therapies for antibiotic-resistant infections. Its Phax platform couples computational phage design and selection with rapid phage engineering; the investment, with other angel and investor funding, will help launch a healthcare provider partnership pilot with a regional Gulf South hospital and complete preclinical work toward an FDA Investigational New Drug application.

The Leptihn lab’s October 2 announcement links a Nature Medicine consensus guideline published September 21, 2026. The primary article describes collaboration involving 20 professional societies, patient advocacy groups and regulatory authorities, 18 international experts, and over 60 recommendations covering principles, infrastructure, preparation and quality control, administration and future research.

Martha Clokie and Anisha Thanki received £800,000 from BBSRC to advance a bacteriophage product against Salmonella in chickens.

A PHTRP article recounts a Sydney case of multidrug-resistant Klebsiella aerogenes necrotizing pancreatitis and the clinical phage therapy programme that treated it. The team has treated more than 60 patients and conducted more than 200 diagnostic screens.

Phageguard is listed as an exhibitor at Middle East Poultry Expo, October 4–6, 2026 in Riyadh, showcasing phage-based food-safety applications.

A University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine team led by Breck Duerkop has spent 15 years compiling a library of phages against stubborn gut bacteria, mainly Enterococcus faecalis and E. faecium: more than 30 phages infecting enterococci plus roughly 15 to 20 infecting Enterobacter and Klebsiella, isolated from untreated wastewater. The lab supplied phages to help treat a 57-year-old woman with a persistent E. faecium bloodstream infection.

Veterinarians at Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut and the University of Florida treated Jetta, an 11-year-old beluga with chronic pneumonia caused by multidrug-resistant E. coli, with bacteriophages chosen for her strain, delivered partly through a nebulizer made for a beluga blowhole; it is described as a first for marine mammals. Her care team has found no recurrence or negative side effects in the year since, and the research is being prepared for publication.

University of Wisconsin–Madison biochemists led by Vatsan Raman built an AI model that identifies phage mutations with the greatest potential to improve targeting and killing of bacteria. In laboratory tests, phages carrying AI-suggested mutations infected their bacterial hosts up to six orders of magnitude more effectively than natural counterparts, and the model was also trained to pick mutations that target specific bacteria while sparing others, a step toward treatments that spare beneficial gut microbes.

Claude helped identify array-associated reverse transcriptases (ART), an enzyme system found mainly in bacteriophages. Early laboratory work is described in a preprint; the system’s biological function remains unknown.

Ayesha Umair’s first primary research preprint explores suppressing phage induction.

McMaster University researchers report in PNAS that several broader-spectrum phages share particular forms of structural diversity in their tail fibres, and that the pattern held across the phages tested in Lori Burrows’ lab and dozens of similar phages in public databases. Analysis of genetic data from more than 1,300 Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains found 53 distinct pili variants, concentrated on the part of the pili that phages interact with.

The University of Santo Tomas BEATS delegation presented four studies—one oral presentation and three posters—at Phages 2026 in Oxford on September 1–2. The work covered bacteriophages, microbial ecology and antimicrobial resistance.

Phage Foundry lists Vivek Mutalik as a recipient of Berkeley Lab’s 2026 Director’s Award for Exceptional Achievement.

The first patient has been enrolled in Part 2 of the Phase 1b/2a clinical trial of SNIPR001, an investigational CRISPR-armed phage therapeutic candidate for preventing E. coli bloodstream infections in hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients. The study will enroll 42 additional patients, bringing the total to 66; Memorial Sloan Kettering and Dana-Farber have joined, expanding the study to ten clinical sites. The Phase 2 design was aligned with FDA through a protocol amendment, with top-line results expected in the second half of 2027.

EcoPhage announced U.S. EPA approval for GoldenEco, a phage-based biopesticide developed for bacterial diseases in tomatoes and peppers caused by Xanthomonas and Pseudomonas. A U.S. commercial launch is subject to state registrations and other requirements.

Inteliphage and Birmingham’s Precision Health Technologies Accelerator will advance PhageXpert, an automated phage susceptibility testing workflow, and support its UK route to market.

Armata Pharmaceuticals announced on September 14, 2026 that the US FDA has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to AP-SA02, its intravenous multi-phage product candidate for adjunct treatment of complicated Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia caused by MSSA or MRSA. Armata says the designation is supported by its Phase 1b/2a diSArm study, in which 100% of AP-SA02-treated patients maintained clinical response without relapse 28 days after antibiotic therapy versus 75% on placebo, and plans a Phase 3 superiority study anticipated to start in the second half of 2026.

A CNN report on antimicrobial resistance follows the family of an Indonesian infant whose parents believe resistance played a role in his death, and Mallory Smith, a cystic fibrosis patient who died at 25 from a B. cepacia infection that antibiotics could not beat. Before her death her doctors had secured FDA approval to give her bacteriophage therapy, an experimental therapy available in the US only through emergency compassionate use or one-off investigational new drug requests; the report says the WHO considers phage therapy generally safe but notes more testing is needed.

In an episode of Stanford Medicine's The Future of Medicine, hematologist and microbiome researcher Dr. Ami Bhatt discusses tracing about 40% of bloodstream infections in a Stanford bone marrow transplant population to microbes already living in patients' guts, and how "jumping genes" may help Enterococcus faecium emerge as a hospital superbug. She also describes using large serine recombinases from phages, whose job is to integrate phage genomes into bacterial genomes, to convert T cells into CAR-T cells inside the body, work spun out as Stylus Medicine.

Professor Yuping Li of the Biozentrum, University of Basel, has received a European Research Council Starting Grant, funded with 1.5 million euros over five years, to study how bacteria detect and defend themselves against jumbophages, giant phages with exceptionally large genomes. The project aims to unravel how a bacterial sensor recognizes phage-specific proteins and what roles these proteins play during the viruses' infection.

Phage Consultants CEO Marcin Łoś was at PHI Korea in Seoul for the first time, meeting Asian clients and potential partners and presenting the company’s portfolio, including swab sampling and virulent phage testing.

This Zenodo archive contains PHORAGER outputs from a prophage-mining analysis of publicly available ESKAPE pathogen genomes, packaged as one ZIP file per species.

MicrobiotiX reported completion of the sentinel cohort in its Phase 1 MP101 trial for Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia. The initial 72-hour assessment raised no safety concern that prevented continuation, and Cohort 1 enrollment was proceeding as planned.

Pauliina Lajunen joined PrecisionPhage as Chief Business Officer in August 2026.

An atlas maps 8,484 interactions between 84 phages and 101 clinical Klebsiella strains, alongside GenoPHI. A Nature Microbiology study describes the genome-only model across 115,037 interactions, with experimental validation of 1,240 E. coli predictions and up to 97.5% bacterial coverage using five-phage cocktails. The paper says the GenoPHI Python package can be installed with pip.

EMBL Heidelberg researchers report in Nature that the kinase of phage T7 (T7K) causes almost every bacterial protein to be phosphorylated, at least in part of its pool, within minutes of infection, preferentially targeting DNA-binding proteins that form a core part of bacterial immune mechanisms. In natural E. coli strains carrying defence systems the kinase was vital for T7 to infect, and the authors suggest that engineering phages with broad anti-defence enzymes such as T7 kinase might be key to effective phage therapies.

Armata said it was finalizing activities for a pivotal Phase 3 superiority study of AP-SA02 in complicated Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia, anticipated to start in the second half of 2026.

A peer-reviewed expanded-access case report in Clinical Infectious Diseases describes investigational SNIPR001 use in a kidney transplant recipient with progressive multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli malakoplakia, under a single-patient emergency investigational new drug application. The patient received intravenous, topical and intralesional SNIPR001 alongside standard-of-care therapy. The report associated treatment with healing and a reduction in the malakoplakia mass from 745 cm³ to 82 cm³ at one year.

On 12 August 2026 the LEO Foundation announced DKK 61.9 million in Research Grants to 16 international projects, including one to Professor Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén (University of Copenhagen); the foundation's grantee record lists his 2026 Research Grant of DKK 3,999,634 for a phage therapeutic against Group A Streptococcus necrotising soft tissue infection. The project will expand and test phages, use computational models to design phage cocktails, develop a hydrogel-based delivery system for local delivery, and test the most promising therapies in advanced human skin models that mimic NSTI. It follows a 2023 Research Grant (DKK 3,988,469) and a 2025 Serendipity Grant (DKK 3,999,597) to the same grantee for phage work.

Stanford researchers led by Brian Hie and Samuel King used Evo 2, a generative AI model that writes whole genomes, to design novel bacteriophage genomes starting from ΦX174. They synthesized nearly 300 phages, tested them against E. coli and ended up with 16 exceptional ones; a cocktail of the 16 rapidly overcame resistance in E. coli that was immune to native ΦX174. The work is described in a new paper, and Evo 2 has been made openly and freely available.

Four CEPID B3 researchers represented the center at Viruses of Microbes in Prague, presenting work on Salmonella phage diversity and approaches to expand phage host range against Escherichia coli.

The M. Iashvili Children’s Central Hospital, Georgia’s only tertiary, multidisciplinary pediatric referral hospital, and the George Eliava Institute of Bacteriophages, Microbiology and Virology have signed a memorandum of cooperation. The hospital's medical director, Ivane Chkhaidze, says a primary practical outcome will be the active integration of bacteriophages into pediatric practice, on an individualized basis for the most severe, drug-resistant cases.

Hebrew University and Hadassah Medical Center are partners in P-PEAKS UTI, a €15 million international project evaluating personalized phage therapy for recurrent E. coli urinary tract infections. The study plans to enrol approximately 220 women and compare phage therapy with placebo alongside an intravenous antibiotic dose.

Uruguayan biotechnology company Kinzbio reports the first application of phage therapy at Uruguay's Banco de Prótesis, treating a 30-year-old patient with a hip prosthesis infection caused by an antibiotic-resistant Stenotrophomonas maltophilia that was identified by metagenomic diagnosis after conventional culture methods failed. According to Kinzbio it is the first intervention of this kind reported in a Latin American reference centre for joint disorders; la diaria reports that the patient had no adverse effects and the infection resolved.

The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University and CreatiPhage signed an agreement on July 8, 2026, to build a phage bank and establish a research project.

Nicholas Smith will lead nuclear imaging and phage pharmacokinetics research and the pharmacology and modelling core at Stanford’s $9.5 million Center for Phage Pharmaceuticals. The NIAID-funded work focuses on optimizing respiratory phage delivery, beginning with Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in cystic fibrosis.

A model infers differences between individual phage infections from population-level measurements, checked against single-cell experiments in a marine phage–cyanobacterium system.

A McMaster team developed a targeted phage approach to disarm adherent-invasive E. coli linked to inflammation in some people with Crohn’s disease. In controlled experimental models, phages reduced gut inflammation by changing bacterial behaviour rather than eliminating the bacteria; further work is planned before human trials.

Dr. Gregory German of Unity Health Toronto will lead P-PEAKS UTI, an international clinical trial in which about 220 women with E. coli urinary tract infections lasting a year or more will receive either personalized phage therapy or placebo, alongside a single dose of IV antibiotic given to both groups. The study, made up of 20 partners from 13 countries, recently received a $25 million funding award from the European Union.

Judith Sar discusses the regulation of E. coli F anti-phage defense genes during T5 infection in a Phages.fr talk hosted on Canal-U.

The REPhRAME project, coordinated by Universitätsmedizin Frankfurt under Prof. Maria J.G.T. Vehreschild, has been awarded €15 million through Horizon Europe; it began in June 2026 and is planned to run for five years. It will assess in a randomized clinical trial, for the first time, phage therapy (the CRISPR-engineered cocktail SNIPR001) followed by gut microbiome restoration (INTESTIFIX 001 from the Cologne Microbiota Bank) to prevent recurrent urinary tract infections, with a consortium of 16 partners in eight European countries.

Non-peer-reviewed scoping-review poster from the NSU KPCOM Student Research Day (May 15, 2026), published on Cureus, that searched six databases for studies of bacteriophage therapy in autoimmune disease. It reports disease-associated changes in the gut virome and microbiome and phage-immune interactions, and concludes that clinical evidence for using phages to reduce lupus (SLE) flares remains limited and that clinical trials are needed.

Precise Health SA, a Biopôle-based EPFL spin-out, has kicked off an Innosuisse Innovation Project worth approximately CHF 900,000 with the University of Geneva and Geneva University Hospitals (HUG). The project builds on its AI-powered PhageMatch platform and will explore how rapid bacterial characterisation combined with AI-driven phage matching can shorten the time needed to source the right phage for a patient.

Gladstone launched the Center for PhAIge Therapy to harness AI for research on drug-resistant infections. NIAID provided an initial $2 million award, with total funding up to $10 million available over the proposed five-year project period.

Intralytix announced a multimillion-dollar NIH P01 award for a Pitt-led CAPT-CEP project developing phage therapy for multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The collaboration includes Pitt, Walter Reed, USC, Florida International University and Intralytix.

NIAID awarded three CAPT-CEP centers to build preclinical tools, assays and models for phage therapy against ESKAPE pathogens. The FY 2026 program provides $6 million across three awards, each up to $1.2 million in annual direct costs for up to five years. Pitt researchers will develop standardized testing methods and laboratory procedures; local wastewater phages have already been used to treat about two dozen UPMC patients.

Phage Consultants (Marcin Łoś, Gdynia, Poland) is developing PhageSense, a platform for rapid, sensitive and repeatable detection of bacteriophage infections in bacterial cultures and industrial fermentation samples that combines fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. The project, co-funded by European Funds for Pomerania 2021-2027 and running from 1 May 2026 to 31 August 2029, has a total value of PLN 3,368,078.52, of which PLN 2,253,705.06 is EU funding.

EcoPhage signed an evaluation and pre-commercialization agreement with Dole Fresh Fruit International to apply its technology against bacterial plant diseases in bananas, including Moko disease caused by Ralstonia solanacearum.

Phage Foundry lists PI Vivek Mutalik as A-LIFT’s 2026 Outstanding Mentor of the Year.

Lytic Selection and Evolution (LySE) uses a modified bacteriophage to evolve long gene clusters. In a proof of concept, the team improved bacterial degradation of a plastic ingredient by more than 50% after five cycles.

Cytophage announced that Will Ollerhead resigned as a director effective April 29, 2026.

Tristan Ferry discusses PHAGEinLYON’s clinical experience with compassionate use and clinical trials in a talk hosted on Canal-U.

Researchers, students and professionals from multiple institutions took part in phage research training through a collaboration between TU-K and the Phage Hunters Training and Research Program. The programme combined online theory with hands-on sample collection, isolation and testing.

Cytophage announced that Chief Operating Officer Heather Medwick left the company effective March 31, 2026, as part of its corporate restructuring.

The University at Buffalo reports clearance of a patient’s chronic MRSA infection following phage therapy alongside antibiotics and hip hardware replacement. Patrick Kenney’s team developed the patient-specific phage after years of recurrent infection.

McMaster University researchers report in mBio (published March 30, 2026) that Pseudomonas aeruginosa can evade phage attack by entering a temporary "stealth mode". Of 28 phage-resistant mutants studied, one regained full pili function in almost half of 100 test samples once phages were removed, which the team says could lead to recurring infections after treatment ends.

Avir Mitra explores antibiotic resistance in this Radiolab live-show episode. The episode page also links to a bacteriophage deep dive with Mitra and Steffanie Strathdee, plus a recording of the live show and bonus Q&A.

An ODIN-funded collaborative project led by Professor Hanne Ingmer (University of Copenhagen) brings academic and industry partners together to develop next-generation tools for phage-based therapies against chronic wound and urinary tract infections. reNEW will build scalable human skin and bladder infection models to test selected phages, and pre-trained AI tools will help predict the most promising phages and build a clinically relevant phage library. Partners include Aarhus University, Hospital Amager & Hvidovre, Coloplast, Invitris, Inicure, LABOKLIN and Phagos.

The ANR-supported PHAG-ONE project, led by Prof. Frédéric Laurent (Hospices Civils de Lyon), is creating a national public infrastructure for GMP-grade production of therapeutic phages. The platform has produced three GMP pilot batches of four phages targeting Staphylococcus aureus that collectively cover 88% of the species' genetic and clinical diversity; compassionate-use treatments, cohort monitoring and preparation of clinical trials come next.

The 2026 SEA-PHAGES genome announcement workflow supports one microPublication Biology announcement per SEA school, with a reduced $150 publication fee. Participating schools’ final manuscript submission deadline is December 31, 2026.

Contagion Live article by Amer El-Ghali and Dana Holger reviewing phage-antibiotic combinations (PACs) in refractory multidrug-resistant infections: preclinical synergy is consistent and compassionate-use reports show safety and frequent clinical improvement, but these stop short of establishing efficacy. It identifies gaps in dosing, phage susceptibility testing and endpoints, and calls for prospective trials with standardized endpoints, shared phage libraries and validated susceptibility testing.

Cytophage formed a committee of independent and disinterested directors to evaluate strategic alternatives, including unsolicited strategic financing proposals. The board had not set a timetable or made a decision on a potential transaction.

Final results of the randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind Phase 1 trial of oral SNIPR001 in healthy volunteers were published in The Lancet Microbe. The trial evaluated safety and tolerability after twice-daily dosing for seven days; no serious adverse events were reported in SNIPR001 dose groups, and gut microbiota composition did not significantly differ from placebo.

Lone Brøndsted and postdoc Rayen Quezada contribute phage-protein research to the END2AMR consortium at the University of Copenhagen.

Unity Health Toronto profiles Gregory German and Steffanie Strathdee’s work on phage therapy. German has treated patients and led a Canadian-first trial for chronic infections; Strathdee helped assemble the cross-border team that treated her husband through a U.S. compassionate-use pathway.

Cytophage Announces Operational Restructuring.

Gerdt Lab tackles antibiotic resistance using bacteriophages.

A team led by the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) AMR group, with MIT, the University of Otago and other partners, reports in Cell Host & Microbe a new type of phage DNA modification: arabinose added to cytosine and extendable to up to three sugars, with more sugars giving greater protection against bacterial defense systems. Many of the modified phages target major pathogens including Acinetobacter baumannii, and the study finds that phage DNA modifications occur at a much higher rate than previously predicted.

Cytophage Announces Appointment of James Kinley as Chief Financial Officer.

Marcin Borowicz received a NAWA Bekker award (2025 edition) of PLN 288,500 for a two-year project at the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, University of Queensland, Brisbane. “Ecogenomics of tailocins: viral legacy in microbial interactions” will study tailocins’ ecological and evolutionary roles in natural microbiomes using ecogenomics, metagenomics and ecological modelling.

Tristan Ferry, professor of infectious diseases and coordinator of the Reference Center for Complex Osteoarticular Infections (Crioac) at Hospices Civils de Lyon, explains how phage therapy works, its advantages (specificity, self-amplification, biofilm degradation) and limits, and how it is used on a compassionate basis in France. About 150 patients have been treated in France over five years, 120 to 130 of them through the PHAGEinLYON Clinic programme, which has held a national mission since January 2023 to centralize phage therapy opinions in complex osteoarticular infections.

Armata Pharmaceuticals announced on January 13, 2026 an FDA End-of-Phase 2 written response confirming that safety and efficacy data from its Phase 2a diSArm study support advancing AP-SA02, an intravenous S. aureus bacteriophage cocktail, to a Phase 3 study in complicated S. aureus bacteremia. The Phase 3 superiority study is expected to start in the second half of 2026, with clinical response at the end of best available antibiotic therapy and 28 days later as the primary endpoint; Armata has submitted a request for Qualified Infectious Disease Product designation.

A $3.3 million NIAID contract supports a proof-of-concept clinical trial of LBP-PA01 for pneumonia, with further funding conditional on milestones.

PHTRP lists a patient-perspective panel discussion on experiences with phage therapy.

PHTRP lists its fifth AMR and phage therapy panel discussion, “Building a Career in Phage Research.”

University of Otago researchers Prof Peter Fineran and Dr Robert Fagerlund are studying bacteriophages to tackle bacterial diseases in New Zealand cherry orchards, with funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), and have collected phage samples from Otago orchards. Their team is developing phage cocktails against Pseudomonas; Fineran says the approaches apply to human and animal pathogens, but that phages are not a "silver bullet" and are more likely to complement antibiotics than replace them.

PhageLab CEO Hans Pieringer says the company created an algorithm that evaluates the genome of Salmonella bacteria to identify small differences and understand specific serotypes, antibiotic resistance and pathology, which helps create tailored phage cocktails that could help poultry producers reduce disease in flocks.

Dr Piotr Golec of the Department of Molecular Virology, Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology UW has received PLN 1,881,850 from the National Science Centre (NCN) under its OPUS 29 call for a project on interactions between lytic phages and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, covering effects on pigment metabolism, virulence regulation and the formation of phage-resistant mutants. The team will also investigate how the phages themselves change during infection when bacteria try to defend against them.

UMC Utrecht has received a 4 million euro grant from the Promising Care scheme of the National Healthcare Institute and ZonMw for the first clinical study in the Netherlands of customized bacteriophage therapy for recurrent urinary tract infections (PhageR-UTI). The study will include 150 people, half receiving a phage selected for their own bacteria and half a saline control, and it will be at least a year before patients can be included; a significant part of the grant sets up GMP production of bacteriophages at UMC Utrecht.

Plaza Feed & Crop Nutrition has an exclusive agreement with Intralytix to use its bacteriophage products in phage kits for livestock production, pairing phages grouped to target E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria with Plaza's Cecabiotics probiotic. The companies say the phages attack target pathogens rapidly while the probiotic fills the gap and suppresses further growth through competitive exclusion.

BiomX announced on December 8, 2025 that it was discontinuing its Phase 2b trial of BX004 in cystic fibrosis patients with chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections, saying the time and resources needed for the alternative dosing strategy recommended by its Data Monitoring Committee exceeded its available resources. The company is cutting costs, including a significant workforce reduction, and will focus on its phage therapeutic BX011 for diabetic foot infections while reviewing strategic alternatives.

Cytophage Announces Closing of Non-Brokered Private Placement and Filing of Q3 Financials.

Cytophage Announces Closing of First Tranche of Non-Brokered Private Placement.

The Department of Microbiology, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, is hosting the 6th International Conference on Bacteriophage Research and Antimicrobial Resistance (ICBRAR-2025) under the Society for Bacteriophage Research and Therapy. The two-day conference (12–13 November 2025) brings over 250 delegates, researchers and experts from India and abroad to discuss bacteriophage biology, therapeutic applications, regulatory challenges and strategies against antimicrobial resistance.

Cytophage Announces Closing Date of its Non-Brokered Private Placement.

The Centre of Biological Engineering at the University of Minho is leading the establishment of a Laboratory for the Production of Therapeutic Phages to address antibiotic resistance.

The European Medicines Agency's draft guideline on quality aspects of phage therapy medicinal products (EMA/CHMP/BWP/1/2024) clarifies the regulatory expectations for quality documentation of bacteriophage active substances and finished products for human use in marketing authorisation applications, covering manufacture, control of materials, characterisation, specifications, analytical control, reference standards and stability. It was first published on 24 October 2025; the public consultation ran from 23 October 2025 to 30 April 2026 and is now closed.

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.

Cytophage Announces Non-Brokered Private Placement.

Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration consulted on a proposed time-limited GMP exemption for manufacturers of personalised bacteriophage therapy products, which are currently supplied as unapproved goods under the Special Access Scheme and Clinical Trial Notification scheme; there are no GMP-licensed bacteriophage facilities in Australia. Feedback will inform amendments to the Regulations. The consultation ran from 16 October to 13 November 2025, with submissions due by 11:59pm on 13 November 2025.

Baylor University will partner with academic and industry investigators on MIGHTY, a five-year initiative funded up to $28 million by ARPA-H. The project aims to develop a precision phage platform, starting with oral health. Aaron Wright will lead Baylor’s contributions.

Cytophage Announces the Commercialization of OvaPhage in Canada Through W.L.T. Distributors Inc.

Project coordinator Esme discussed using phage therapy to treat urinary tract infections with Melissa Kramer of Live UTI Free.

Paris-based Phagos has raised a €25 million Series A co-led by CapAgro, Hoxton Ventures, CapHorn and Demeter. The funds will go to deploying its veterinary phage treatments in the field, developing the next generation of its AI phage-discovery technology and expanding in Europe, Asia and the Americas; the company says it holds the first authorization to market personalized veterinary phage-based treatments in the EU.

The Phage Collection Project announced that its Phage Therapy VR experience was available to download.

MicrobiotiX, a Korean bacteriophage-therapy company, completed an extended Series B totaling 20 billion KRW (29 billion KRW raised across rounds). It was also selected for the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare's Infectious Disease Prevention and Treatment Technology Development Project, a 2.5 billion KRW clinical award, and plans to begin the first human clinical trial of phage therapy in Korea.

University of Toronto researchers report in Nature that the phage protein Zip reduces the number and length of pili on Pseudomonas aeruginosa and, they hypothesize, prevents self-infection so that viral progeny can reach new hosts, a phenomenon they call the anti-Kronos effect. When the phage could no longer make Zip, progeny fell from roughly one million viruses per millilitre of broth to 500; Zip levels respond to a bacterial communication system, and anti-Kronos systems also appear in phages that target Salmonella and Listeria.

Lake Forest College alumna Laurel Robbins (’23), a PhD candidate in biochemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder, received a 2025 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, securing funding for tuition, stipend and fees for the next three years. Her lab investigates the mechanisms of bacterial immune systems that defend against bacteriophages; understanding them has potential for improving the efficacy of phage therapy.

CARB-X awarded PHIOGEN $1.1 million to evaluate PHI-BI-01, a phage-based candidate designed to treat and prevent ExPEC bloodstream infections. The project aims to pair immediate treatment with longer-term immune protection.

Dr Andrew Millard's team at the University of Leicester has analysed dung samples from nearly every animal at Dudley Zoo to build a large phage library for finding phages that best fight different bacterial infections. Droppings contain many bacteria and therefore many phages, a quick way to assemble a diverse collection; skink dung already showed clear gaps in the petri dish where phages had killed bacteria.

Cytophage Technologies announced on August 25, 2025 that it received two Letters of No Objection from Health Canada's Food Directorate for its OvaPhage egg-surface and PhageFend food-surface bacteriophage products. According to the company, Health Canada concluded that OvaPhage reduces Salmonella, Escherichia and Shigella (Enterobacteriaceae) on egg surfaces and that PhageFend reduces Salmonella enterica on raw skinless and boneless chicken breasts; OvaPhage is in the final stages of development toward commercialization.

Feature on the Reference Center for Complex Osteoarticular Infections (CrioaC) at Croix-Rousse Hospital in Lyon, where Professor Tristan Ferry's team treats patients at a therapeutic impasse with phages, a treatment the service has pioneered in France. Because phage therapy is not yet authorized in France, it is given in a tightly controlled way: under a compassionate-access authorization (AAC) validated by the ANSM, free of charge outside that route, or within a phase II clinical trial run with Phaxiam. Phages are generally injected as a cocktail of two or three, often under ultrasound; the article first appeared in ActuSoins magazine no. 53 (June 2024).

University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy researchers use a modified version of the M13 bacteriophage to deliver chosen therapeutic genes to specific human cells, with no unwanted virus or bacteria, as a cheaper and more efficient route to treating some inherited diseases. Principal investigator Roderick Slavcev says that at scale the platform could cost as little as one-millionth of current viral gene therapies; the study appears in Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids.

In a Form 8-K dated August 19, 2025, BiomX reported that the FDA placed a clinical hold on its Phase 2b study of BX004 in cystic fibrosis while it reviews data on a third-party nebulizer used to deliver BX004. The FDA raised no concerns about BX004 in the hold notification and BiomX submitted the additional data requested; patient screening and enrollment in the US portion are paused, while in Europe, where all nebulizer components are CE marked, the study has been approved and enrollment and dosing continue.

Bemidji State University senior Bill Ketola, working in Dr Holly LaFerriere's lab, isolated a previously uncatalogued phage from a soil sample and named it Jant. It is lytic against Mycobacterium smegmatis, a safe lab bacterium that shares many characteristics with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and kills its biofilms; future work is needed to confirm activity against M. tuberculosis. He presented the discovery at the ASM Microbe conference in Los Angeles.

Doctors at SHRI Hospital in Guntur, led by Dr K. Kalyan Chakravarthy with Prof. Gopal Nath of Banaras Hindu University, used bacteriophage therapy to treat a 72-year-old woman with a chronic multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii bone and joint infection that was resistant to all available antibiotics. She had battled the infection for six months before being admitted in critical condition in January and has had no recurrence in the past six months.

iNtRON Biotechnology announced on August 5, 2025 that its IMPA (Intelligent Modular Phage Assembly) phage engineering technology produced a phage carrying a colibactin-degrading protein on its capsid. The company says the engineered phage kills colibactin-producing pks+ E. coli and neutralizes the toxin in proof-of-concept studies relevant to colorectal cancer; it has filed a US patent application for the candidate, and preclinical studies, including combination testing with existing colorectal cancer therapies, are underway.

On 4 August 2025 ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco announced that its infectious diseases department had started phage therapy for a patient with a pressure ulcer infected by antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, described as one of the first cases treated in the world. The compassionate-use treatment, coordinated by Dr Matteo Passerini with the University of Pisa's biology department and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester (personalized phage production), eradicated the bacterium in repeated wound cultures and improved the lesion, making the patient a candidate for a skin graft.

Harvard Undergraduate Microbiology Society explainer by Srikara Tadigotla on phage-antibiotic synergy (PAS), which pairs inexpensive antibiotics with adaptable phages so that bacteria must trade off phage resistance against antibiotic resistance, for example by shutting efflux pumps or mutating receptors. It notes limits: high phage specificity, the need for careful pairing because some antibiotics inhibit phage reproduction, and immune-system clearance of phages.

NASA's July 15, 2025 research preview for the SpaceX Crew-11 mission lists Genes in Space-12, a student-designed DNA experiment that examines the effects of microgravity on interactions between certain bacteria and bacteriophages, among investigations flying to the International Space Station. Genes in Space co-founder Scott Copeland of Boeing says it could establish a foundation for using phages to treat bacterial infections in space and reduce dependence on antibiotics; miniPCR bio's Dr. Ally Huang adds that phages produced in space could have implications for human health and microbial control.

The University of Florida has granted Phageolytix an exclusive worldwide license to multi-indication bacteriophage cocktails developed by researchers in its College of Medicine-Jacksonville (announced July 14, 2025). Phageolytix will manufacture GMP-grade phage cocktails and conduct the pre-clinical and clinical studies needed for FDA and other regulatory approval.

A Chinese University of Hong Kong team led by Professor Mao Chuanbin built engineered bacteriophages carrying a tumour-targeting peptide, platinum nanozymes that turn hydrogen peroxide into oxygen inside tumours, and the light-activated drug Indocyanine Green, to overcome the low oxygen that limits photodynamic therapy. In mice with MCF-7 breast tumours, 40% of the animals were cancer-free after 16 days of treatment; the findings were published in Advanced Materials.

Harvard Undergraduate Microbiology Society article by Ishaan Vitthala on “programmable” phages that deliver genetic circuits to reprogram bacteria rather than only kill them, with possible uses in the gut microbiome, agriculture, wastewater and microplastic degradation. It notes that resistance, gene transfer and ecosystem risks remain and that rules for using programmable phages are yet to be developed.

The Phage Collection Project says its work was featured in the BBC article “I found a bacteria-eating virus in my loo — could it save your life?”

Ruby Darwin, a PhD student in the University of Liverpool's Department of Infection Biology and Microbiomes, attended the two-day Targeting Phage Therapy 2025 conference virtually with IVES small grant funds. She highlights a first clinical trial of phages in Japan for Pseudomonas aeruginosa otitis externa, DUOFAG clinical trials of a phage spray for skin infections and wounds, freeze-dried phage tablets, phages against quorum sensing genes and phage–bacteria co-evolution.

SNIPR Biome announced on June 12, 2025 that the first patient has been dosed in its Phase 1b study of SNIPR001, an orally administered CRISPR-armed phage therapeutic that targets E. coli in the gut, in hematological cancer patients undergoing hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation. The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (NCT06938867) will enrol 24 patients at eight US centers and is co-funded by CARB-X; it follows a CARB-X-funded Phase 1a trial in healthy volunteers.

A team of authors from Israel and Portugal, including researchers from the Hadassah Medical Organization, tested the bacteriophage mixture TP-102 on 19 diabetic patients with infected and non-infected foot ulcers. TP-102 was safe and well tolerated when applied directly to the wound; the article notes that further studies are needed to confirm its safety and efficacy in larger populations.

Navy Medicine Research & Development reports that, over a six-year Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) award starting in fiscal year 2019, the Naval Medical Research Command worked with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research on phages against Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. NMRC's labs have developed approximately 2,500 phage cocktails, and the effort has amassed a library of over 2,000 phages; its next focus is FDA Investigational New Drug applications to move the most promising cocktails into phase one studies.

On 4 June 2025 the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) published the UK's first official guidance to support the safe development and use of phage therapies, covering both combined phage products for common infections and personalised phage therapies tailored to individual patients. The 28-page document sets out the evidence needed for clinical trials and market authorisation, quality and Good Manufacturing Practice standards, how personalised treatments can be developed and supplied, and when unlicensed phage treatments can be used for individual patients.

Report from the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Development Hub, published 26 May 2025, on advancing the evidence for using bacteriophages against antimicrobial resistance under a One Health approach. It summarizes webinars, expert consultations and a dedicated workshop held in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Armata Pharmaceuticals reported positive topline results from its randomized, placebo-controlled Phase 1b/2a diSArm trial (n=50) of intravenous multi-phage therapeutic AP-SA02 plus best available antibiotic therapy in complicated Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. The company says AP-SA02 was well tolerated with no serious adverse events related to the study drug, and a statistically significant higher investigator-assessed responder rate at day 12 (88% versus 58% with placebo, p = 0.047).

Researchers at the Center for Phage Biology and Therapy at Yale report in Nature Medicine on nine adults with cystic fibrosis treated by nebulization with phages selected to kill infecting bacteria and also weaken the survivors, making them less virulent or less resistant to antibiotics. The study found improved lung function, reduced sputum P. aeruginosa and evidence that phage-resistant bacteria had reduced pathogenicity.

BiomX announced positive topline safety and efficacy results from its Phase 2 DANCE trial of the BX211 phage treatment for diabetic foot osteomyelitis associated with Staphylococcus aureus. BX211 was safe and well tolerated and produced a sustained reduction of ulcer size versus placebo (non-adjusted p = 0.046 at week 12 and p = 0.052 at week 13), with separation from placebo from week 7. BiomX is planning a Phase 2/3 trial, pending FDA feedback.

A Future Market Insights press release projects the global bacteriophage market rising from USD 49 million in 2025 to USD 72.4 million by 2035, a 4.0% CAGR. It points to bacteriophage therapy as an alternative to antibiotics and to phage-based biopesticides in agricultural disease control as growth drivers.

Micreos Pharmaceuticals partners with biologics CDMO Northway Biotech for its engineered endolysin therapeutic manufacturing program. The partnership will develop scalable cGMP production processes for MEndoB, an investigational therapeutic for atopic dermatitis, and includes analytical methods, cell-bank manufacturing and scale-up.

Cytophage Technologies announced the development of a phage-based vaccine for avian influenza (H5N1). Two candidates that use filamentous bacteriophages to display influenza antigens are entering preclinical validation, where a pilot study will assess efficacy, immunogenicity and optimal dosing in small animal models. The company expected to name a laboratory testing partner in spring 2025 and to publish pilot results the following quarter.

CRISPRi-ART uses dCas13d to bind specific phage mRNAs and stop production of the proteins they encode. By shutting off different phage proteins, researchers can identify which are essential for infection and investigate what they do. The method is described in a Nature Microbiology paper from the Doudna and Cress labs.

The Israeli Phage Therapy Center named the newly discovered phage KpRaz1 in memory of Raz Abulafia. The article says the phage could have therapeutic value if it proves effective against bacterial infections.

WHO/Europe fact sheet explaining that therapeutic phages are lytic and highly specific to their bacterial hosts and can be used alone or alongside antibiotics, but are not approved medicines in most countries and are mainly used on compassionate grounds. It covers uses in humans, animals, agriculture, aquaculture and the environment, and says further clinical evidence is needed before phages can be widely available for therapeutic use in humans.

A USP memorial remembers Aline Maria da Silva’s work with compost phages and her role in bringing researchers together to launch the Cepid B3 Center for Research in Bacteria and Bacteriophages, where she served as vice-director.

Gerdt Lab’s recent work finds that bacterial metabolites synergize with viruses to shape microbial competition. The research was featured by Phys.org, AZoLifeSciences and ContagionLive.

Cytophage and Winnipeg’s Orthopaedic Innovation Centre announced Manitoba’s first Phage Clinical Treatment Program, initially focused on prosthetic joint infections resistant to antibiotics. The partners planned compassionate-use/N=1 cases to inform later trial planning.

Technology Networks feature by Blake Forman on how synthetic biology is used to modify antibiotics, improve antibiotic production and engineer more targeted phages, including CRISPR–Cas-armed phages, alongside engineered probiotics and biosensors. It describes SNIPR Biome’s SNIPR001, a combination of the four most complementary CRISPR–Cas-armed phages targeting E. coli, which has entered clinical development.

Scientists from the Institut Pasteur, Inserm, AP-HP and Université Paris Cité trained an AI model that recommends a phage cocktail for a bacterial strain from its genome alone, using 350,000 interactions between 403 E. coli strains and 96 phages. The model correctly predicted phage efficacy in 85% of cases in the dataset, and in 90% of cases the phages it chose for a new collection of pneumonia-causing E. coli strains destroyed the bacteria; infection depended on receptors at the bacterial surface rather than on anti-viral defence mechanisms. The work was published on October 31, 2024 in Nature Microbiology.

On 15 November 2024 the board of Portugal's medicines authority INFARMED approved, in Deliberação n.º 112/CD/2024, a guidance note on compounded medicines for phage therapy in hospitals: magistral preparations of bacteriophages made in a hospital pharmacy on medical prescription for one specific patient. The treatment decision must be validated by the hospital's Ethics Committee and Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, phages must come with a certificate of analysis and meet the European Pharmacopoeia chapter on phage therapy medicinal products (5.31) and the Belgian monograph, and each treatment outcome must be reported to INFARMED using an annexed questionnaire.

PrecisionPhage raised €1 million from Nordic Science Investment, Genetricum and Unifund and secured €1.2 million in Deep Tech Accelerator funding from Business Finland, a €2.2 million seed round. The company develops bioinformatic tools for phage analysis in research and production, licenses phages against common drug-resistant pathogens and offers phage laboratory services.

PhageEU, a coalition founded by Proteon Pharmaceuticals (Poland), PTC Technology Center (Germany) and JAFRAL (Slovenia) that represents phages in industry, science and civil society, has registered as a non-profit organisation with its seat and secretariat in Brussels. It aims to facilitate access to phage technology in the EU and shape the EU political and regulatory agenda; Jarosław Dastych of Proteon is its first President, and it is open to new members from Europe and beyond.

The Alfred and Monash University collaboration had explored phage therapy for four patients by February 2024, with patients considered eligible only on compassionate grounds in Australia. The team described the approach as experimental.

PHAXIAM Therapeutics and Vetophage, a Lyon-based company specialised in phage therapy for animal health, signed a long-term strategic research partnership to combine their expertise in discovering new phages and phage-derived proteins (endolysins) against antimicrobial resistance. The agreement gives PHAXIAM exclusive licensing options on specified phages and endolysins for human health from the Vetophage platform.

Researchers at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Federal University of Viçosa and University of Córdoba reported the phage UFJF_PfDIW6, which lyses Pseudomonas fluorescens affecting milk quality. The article says ICTV accepted the proposed genus Purivirus; the phage is being evaluated against bacteria in food matrices.

ERYTECH Pharma shareholders approved the merger with Pherecydes at the June 23, 2023 combined meeting. The company was renamed Phaxiam Therapeutics.

SNIPR Biome announced positive interim results from its Phase 1 trial of SNIPR001, a cocktail of four CRISPR-armed phages that targets E. coli, including antibiotic-resistant strains, in the gut. In 36 healthy volunteers (24 on three dose levels, 12 on placebo), seven days of oral dosing was well tolerated with only mild to moderate side effects; SNIPR001 was recovered in feces in a dose-dependent manner and numerically lowered gut E. coli levels. Future studies are planned in cancer patients at high risk of E. coli bloodstream infection.

Adaptive Phage Therapeutics announces a collaboration and license agreement with the Israeli Phage Therapy Center at Hebrew University and Hadassah Medical Center. The agreement grants APT exclusive rights to make, use and sell licensed phages for human therapy, with sublicensing rights.

KIU School of Pharmacy describes PhageTeam Uganda’s work exploring bacteriophages as biocontrol agents for selected bacterial diseases in poultry, aquaculture, clinical settings and plants; over a dozen pharmacy students are involved.

Prof Martha Clokie of the University of Leicester told The Guardian that experimental phage therapies need to be rapidly scaled up in the NHS to combat antibiotic resistance. She will direct the UK's first phage library, due to open at Leicester the following month, which she says will help fast-track phage use in the NHS and pave the way for the clinical trials needed for licensing.

BiomX announced positive results from Part 1 of its Phase 1b/2a study of the BX004 phage cocktail in nine cystic fibrosis patients (seven on BX004, two on placebo) with chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection. There were no safety events related to BX004, and mean P. aeruginosa burden at Day 15 fell by 1.42 log10 CFU/g versus 0.28 log10 CFU/g with placebo, on top of standard inhaled antibiotics. Part 2, in 24 patients, was expected to report in the third quarter of 2023.

Eawag researchers found that phages combined with chemical disinfection improved removal of pathogens from surfaces. Treatment outcomes differed by bacterial growth form; more than 99% of free bacteria and wet biofilms were removed, and applying phages before disinfectant improved removal from wet biofilms. Further study is needed before practical use.

NC State researchers (Stefano Menegatti, Christopher Gorman and students) developed DendriPeps, dendrimer-peptide coatings that surround nanoparticle templates, including therapeutic bacteriophages, and keep them stable against salt and pH changes. Localized shear releases the particles to treat local infections, and the coating re-forms when shear stops.

A Tel Aviv University study led by Prof. Avigdor Eldar with Weizmann Institute partners (Nature Microbiology, December 2021) found that a dormant phage listens, via a receptor, to the arbitrium signal molecules its host produces to learn whether neighbouring bacteria also carry phages, and refrains from becoming active even when its own host shows DNA damage. The researchers call this a kind of 'phage game theory'.

USF researchers adapted the polony method to quantify gokushoviruses, one of the least understood groups of phages, for the first time; they may be more abundant than previously thought. Their ecological role remains unknown.

A UC San Diego-led project found that pre-trained phages demonstrated they could delay the onset of bacterial resistance.

NIAID awarded $2.5 million in grants to 12 institutes for research on bacteriophage therapy—its first series focused exclusively on the approach. The projects address phage resistance, biofilms, host specificity, delivery, engineering and combinations with antibiotics.

Faculty and research scholars from Amrita School of Biotechnology attended the two-day International Conference on Bacteriophage Research and Antimicrobial Resistance, held December 12–13, 2019 at VIT Vellore.

misPeces overview of phage therapy as a natural alternative to antibiotics in aquaculture, reviewing studies in farmed species such as tilapia, European eel and Senegalese sole, with phages given by injection or in feed, singly or as cocktails. It says the main challenge is moving from laboratory trials to farm-scale implementation, starting with protocols for incorporating phages into aquafeed.

UC San Diego announced the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH) in June 2018, with a three-year, $1.2 million launch grant and plans to validate phage therapy for multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. Steffanie Strathdee and Robert Schooley were named co-directors.

Massey’s Hendrickson Lab and the American Foulbrood Management Agency are developing cocktails of native New Zealand bacteriophages as a preventive measure against American foulbrood in honey-bee hives.

A 2012 VCU research report describes how SaPIs package their own DNA while interfering with helper phages. The team identified specific inhibition of helper-phage DNA packaging as a second mechanism, alongside capsid-size changes.

January 2025: Project funding and PhD scholarships awarded for two MQ BioInnovation projects: “Designing RNA with Custom Properties using AI” and “Towards Total Digital Control of Biological Systems.”

Irene Lweikiza presented on bacteriophages in a One Health perspective for the Biotechnology Society of Tanzania. The session was listed for September 23, 2026.

An ERC Advanced Grant will support the Brouns lab’s research for five years.

Invitris launched the AI-to-Phage Challenge at Viruses of Microbes 2026 in Prague, where CEO Patrick Grossmann called on the community to “bring your AI, and we’ll bring the phages.”

The first JAFRAL Phage Summit in Ljubljana in 2026 brought together more than 150 participants from 25+ countries, with 28 speakers and a 96% satisfaction score.

Recordings from the 2026 Phage therapy 101 course are planned for delivery on November 16, followed by a live Q&A on November 27.

Flinders researchers explored bacteriophages as a potential treatment for diabetes-related foot ulcers.

Established in 2019 and managed by a TU Delft research group, Fagenbank collects bacteria and bacteriophages for research into the efficiency and safety of phage therapy in the Netherlands.

Near East University announced that it has isolated NEU2025, a third bacteriophage from a campus pond, found with La Trobe University (Australia); genome analysis places it in the Pbunavirus group and it targets multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. With the earlier NEU2023 and NEU2024 it forms a "triple phage cocktail"; the rector says the next step toward treatment is completing the necessary legal procedures.

Vivek Mutalik shares a new Phage Foundry preprint comparing host requirements and entry routes for single-strand RNA and filamentous DNA phages in E. coli.

The House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee ran an inquiry into the antimicrobial potential of bacteriophages, prompted by a pitch to its My Science inquiry and asking how UK and EU regulation, which has largely limited phages to individual compassionate use, affects their potential against antimicrobial resistance. Written evidence closed on 20 January 2023, and oral evidence sessions were held on 8 February, 15 March and 26 April 2023.

INFECTORY says its project to build a Dutch GMP production facility for bacteriophages received funding through PharmaNL. The post also points to a PharmaNL feature on the project and the work needed to establish GMP-grade production in the Netherlands.

Martin Georges and Moses “Musa” Gachoya collect samples from Kenyan rivers, the Indian Ocean and Rift Valley crater lakes while searching for bacteriophages that may combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

In the METAMIC³ Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network, doctoral candidate Laura Marsal (University of Pisa; main supervisor Mariagrazia Di Luca) studies the effect of phages and antimicrobial peptides on bacteria growing freely or embedded in biofilms. The project aims to develop high-content screening of microbial effectors, isolate and characterize new bacteriophages targeting human bacteria from different microbiomes, and build a biobank of phages, antimicrobial peptides and novel antibiotics.

Project coordinator Esme joined a Venturefest South 2025 panel on translating bioinnovation and received the Open Mic Pitching Champion award.

Québec biotechnology company Qeen Biotechnologies has secured C$1 million in growth financing from Investissement Québec to accelerate its expansion across the United Kingdom and Europe. The expansion covers UK and European market development, GMP manufacturing and supply of phage clinical-trial materials, regulatory and import pathways for clinical trials and special-access treatments, and partnerships with healthcare systems, biotechnology companies and investors.

Arrowsmith (Tsukuba, Japan) completed a Series A round totaling ¥1.05 billion, with JAFCO, JIC-VGI and ANRI in the first close and DBJ Capital in the second, and held a pre-IND meeting with the US FDA on ARW001, its phage cocktail for Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. The written FDA response, received at the end of December 2025, addressed the first clinical trial design, the nonclinical and CMC data package, and a development plan without GLP toxicology studies; the company plans to file an IND and start the first clinical trial in 2026.

BiomX has dosed the first cystic fibrosis patient in its Phase 2b trial of BX004 for chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections.

PhalconBio, a Swiss biotech with an engineered-phage platform, has secured £1 million of grant funding from PACE (Pathways to Antimicrobial Clinical Efficacy) to advance its lead anti-Pseudomonas programme. PACE named PhalconBio among the awardees of its £10m antimicrobial therapeutics funding call, supporting engineered phage therapies against lower respiratory tract infections caused by multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

PhageLand was designed to combine phage-based treatment with constructed wetlands to reduce the spread of antibiotic resistance from wastewater into surface waters. Its stated project period was February 2022 to January 2025.

In New England Biolabs’ Lessons from Lab & Life podcast, Yale’s Paul Turner expects the next 5 to 10 years to bring more clinical trials of phage therapy against targets such as lung and urinary tract infections, and says engineering phages gives a better understanding of the biological drug than taking them from environmental samples. He also points to lower regulatory hurdles for animal and plant uses and to growing interest from researchers in low- and middle-income countries.

PUCV’s Bacteriophage and Microbial Interactions Group lists Cherry-cóctel (2024–2026), a platform for designing phage cocktails against cherry pathogens, and a Vibrio–phage coevolution project in the context of global warming (2024–2028). Both are associated with Roberto Bastías and ANID funding.

Scheduled for July 3, 2025 at the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition, Franklin Nobrega’s talk “Fighting superbugs with tiny warriors” was advertised as an in-person talk with a livestream.

Invitris was selected among many strong candidates for the Orbital Bioworks Challenge by SPRIND - Bundesagentur für Sprunginnovationen. Protein production in microgravity opens up a whole new level of possibilities.

Rafał Mostowy discusses bacterial molecular warfare and possible ways to use phages, including engineered phages and virus-derived enzybiotics, against bacteria.

Bacteriophage.news announces an affiliate partnership with Parallel Health. The post describes the company’s MD-03 Protocol as combining microbiome sequencing, personalized phage serums and ongoing clinical support.

Second-year PhD student Milena Milovanović explains her thesis on how phages match their own DNA to their own proteins even when assembled outside a cell, using the PHEIGES test-tube system developed with the lab of Vincent Noireaux; she is co-supervised by Ariel Lindner and Claude Loverdo at Sorbonne Université. The interview also describes the FIRE Doctoral School, with applications open until 3 April 2026.

The Phage Collection Project was a flagship exhibit at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition from July 1–6, 2025. The team met more than 11,000 visitors and launched a phage-therapy VR experience.

PhageLine is a podcast that unpacks the science of bacteriophages one paper at a time, with each episode discussing a recently published study. The podcast is generated using artificial intelligence, and infectious disease scientists review the scripts before production. The show lists 32 episodes.

ASM Health’s work at ASM Microbe included phage therapy, diagnostics, and microbiome medicines. A panel featured Steffanie Strathdee, Vivek Mutalik and Daria Van Tyne, and ASM launched its Phage Therapy Coordination Network.

The article outlines a proposed Global Phage Fund that would link revenue from phage products with long-term support for discovery, development, manufacturing standards, regulatory alignment and equitable global access.

The official abstract book for the 9th World Conference on Targeting Phage Therapy includes over 48 contributions from 24 countries. Topics include phage therapy, One Health, and production, regulation and market access.

UCLA Samueli School of Engineering listed chemical engineering PhD graduate Yanxi (Steven) Yang among its 2025 schoolwide awardees, as a Harry M. Showman Prize (graduate) recipient. Yang hosts the "Phage Therapy Today" podcast (20 episodes, more than 7,000 streams across 72 countries), works in Irene Chen's lab on a phage-drug conjugate delivery platform against multidrug-resistant infections, and plans to found the UCLA spinout Paralos Bioscience.

The Best Arabic Phage Award 2025 honors Arab researchers who isolated phages in the MENA region, across medicine, agriculture, food safety and environmental applications.

Vésale Bioscience has become Inteliphage after five years, saying it is no longer just a research-driven biotech but is focused on bringing next-generation bacteriophage therapies into routine clinical care. The company says it is partnering with hospitals, researchers and industry to move phage-based therapies from bench to bedside worldwide.

Rhea Coler's lab at Seattle Children's develops bacteriophage therapies for tuberculosis, nontuberculous mycobacterial infections and cystic fibrosis lung disease, working with Graham Hatfull's lab at the University of Pittsburgh with Gates Foundation support. It runs Pacific Northwest "phage hunts" to widen the therapeutic phage collection and is at preclinical in vitro and in vivo stages; the page lists sponsored research, collaboration, consultation, licensing, screening and contract-service partnering.

Paris startup Phagos, founded by microbiologist Adèle James and economist Alexandros Pantalis, is building AI models to predict which phages work best against a given bacterial infection, with embedded AWS engineers through the 2024 AWS Generative AI Accelerator Program. Its first tests, at a French oyster farm, showed a 40% reduction in mortality in infected oysters; it has since expanded to shrimp, chicken, bovine and swine, and currently focuses on animal health.

PhageMine is open-source software for bacteriophage genomics, genome annotation and comparative phage genomics. Its Bioconda package has reached version 1.2.0; the developer invites researchers to try it and share feedback.

Phagenomics BatchQC is a phage genome quality control platform designed for GMP production. PrecisionPhage says it monitors phage batch genomes and detects contamination in GMP production environments; the page states it is launching in 2026.

IAS–USA offers on-demand access to the 2025 conference recordings, ePosters and related materials for $695, with access registration ending October 14, 2026.

CDC's May 2023 update on the multistate outbreak of extensively drug-resistant VIM-GES-CRPA Pseudomonas aeruginosa associated with artificial tears reports 81 patients in 18 states as of May 15, 2023. It notes that phages with activity against the outbreak strain have been identified at UC San Diego's Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH) and the Yale Center for Phage Biology and Therapy, and that clinicians interested in phage as a treatment option should contact IPATH or Dr. Jonathan Koff at Yale.

PhageBench contains 5,600 samples across phage screening, quality control and phenotype annotation tasks. Its evaluation found stronger-than-random performance on some tasks and limitations in complex sequence reasoning.

Nugen reports that Ph.D. student Caitlin Carmody placed third in the International Committee on Food Microbiology and Hygiene’s research poster competition at the 2019 Evergreen International Phage Biology Meeting in Olympia, Washington.

COST Action Phage4Crops (CA25147), “Bacteriophages for crop protection: Discovery, Exploration, Application & Society”, will build a multi-stakeholder European network for bacteriophage biocontrol of plant-pathogenic bacteria in the agri-food sector. It was approved on 19 May 2026 and runs from 13 October 2026 to 12 October 2030, with four working groups (discovery, exploration, application and society); interested people can apply to join a working group through an e-COST profile.

At JAFRAL Phage Summit 2026 in Slovenia, Neha Prasad presented on patient access to phage therapy. Tobi Nagel moderated a panel spanning global health, health economics, market access and clinician perspectives.

A second ASM Health Phage Therapy Coordination Network working group focuses on regulatory pathways and implementation resources for patient access. People with relevant experience were invited to apply.

Belgian biotech Obulytix says it is developing Precision Lysin Therapeutics, engineered phage-derived enzymes that degrade bacterial cell walls, with a lead programme against multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii; it reports activity in high-serum conditions and lower bacterial burden in mouse bloodstream-infection models. The report sets this alongside new WHO target product profiles for antibiotics and roughly 90 antibacterial agents in development.

The House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee's report The antimicrobial potential of bacteriophages follows an inquiry that received over 40 pieces of written evidence and held three oral evidence sessions. Among its recommendations, the Department of Health and Social Care should consider bringing funders and innovation centres together to build a GMP facility for phage innovators and the NHS, including investment in spare laboratory space such as the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory.

CEO Kristof Van Emelen presented Precision Lysin Therapeutics at BioCentury Grand Rounds: Europe.

The Ciofu group proposes testing strain-specific phage–antibiotic combinations against Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms and identifying bacterial genetic mechanisms that could guide those combinations.

Phage Australia announced its ISO 9001 quality-management registration in July 2025.

Temiloluwa Akintade and Bello Abdul Hakeem presented genome annotation and characterization of Arthrobacter phage AnnabelLee at NISPET-Ibadan 2026 at the University of Ibadan. The work combined automated annotation with manual curation using DNA Master, Phamerator and Starterator.

Amaia Lasagabaster Bilbao helped develop an infographic with colleagues from AZTI and Biotegania about phages for animal production and food safety.

The Czech medicines regulator SÚKL has granted consent to begin phase II B clinical evaluation of DUOFAG®. This follows completed phase I, which confirmed the product’s safety, and ongoing phase II A examining efficacy in patients with complicated bacterial infections.

The Phage Collection Project exhibited at a Winchester Science Centre outreach event during British Science Week, sharing phage research with more than 300 schoolchildren.

Berkeley Lab speaks with Aeron Tynes Hammack about how physics, biology and nanofabrication connect in his research. The interview traces work at EpiBiome and Locus Biosciences and discusses the Phage Foundry as a shared research resource.

An ANSM letter dated May 28, 2026 authorized HCL to manufacture production intermediates and purified therapeutic phage pharmaceutical raw materials under GMP standards. Its PHAGEinLYON programme began in 2017.

The University of Wrocław team describes KLEOPATRA as a research project exploring phages and phage enzymes alongside antibiotics for Klebsiella pneumoniae. The approach combines phages with enzymes that degrade the bacterial capsule.

Maik Wolfram-Schauerte has launched TungstenLab, combining machine learning and bioinformatics with microbiology and biochemistry to study phage infection and host takeover. The lab aims to use phages and their molecular strategies as tools to control bacteria.

BGSU reports that Hans Wildschutte and Ray Larsen identified about 25 phages that kill antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa and shared the research with a phage bank for researchers and doctors. The feature also describes historical grant support for this research.

At GAMRIC 2026, JAFRAL CEO Frenk Smrekar joined John Rex, Radu Botgros and Gauri Rao for a panel on phage therapy as a narrow-spectrum antimicrobial strategy, from product concept to late-stage clinical development.

SciPhage’s application for a framework Genetic Resources Access Contract was admitted under Ministry Order No. 262, dated December 1, 2025. The program concerns commercialization of bacteriophages for Salmonella control in poultry.

EUCAST has established its Phage Susceptibility Testing (PST) Subcommittee to develop standardized methods for testing therapeutic phages. Frédéric Laurent is chair and Annika Classen is scientific secretary.

NexaBiome has received continued funding from Scotland’s national economic development agency for its bacteriophage technology targeting diabetic foot infections.

Project coordinator Esme gave talks to two triple Biology classes at Cantell School about antimicrobial resistance and using phages to treat chronic infections. Students also designed awareness campaigns as policymakers.

Telum’s laboratory production-capacity investment project was co-funded by a Government of Navarra grant under the 2024 investment-aid call for industrial SMEs. The site also acknowledges support from the Government of Navarra and the European Regional Development Fund under Navarra’s 2021–2027 ERDF programme.

PRAN welcomes 30 fellows for a ten-week programme covering genomics, bioinformatics, phage advocacy and science communication. The cohort brings together emerging scientists and advocates from across Africa.

Adelaide University, AusHealth, EB Partnerships Australia (EBRPA) and the SMART Cooperative Research Centre are developing bacteriophage therapy for chronic wound infections in people with epidermolysis bullosa, in the SMART CRC's first collaboration. The South Australian project, a joint investment of more than $1 million over 2.5 years, is led by Professor Sarah Vreugde at the AusHealth Phage Therapy Centre in Adelaide and will test bacteriophage combinations applied directly to EB wounds as a topical treatment.

FAGOSASUN was an AZTI project funded by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia for 2023–2025. It aimed to optimize and validate phage applications against Listeria monocytogenes in food products to support food safety.

The Phage Collection Project is a citizen-science initiative run by early career researchers at the University of Southampton. It aims to advance phage therapy research through public education, a biobank of clinical bacterial strains, and policy engagement.

Innovate UK KTN has established the Phage Innovation Network to drive innovation in the regulation and development of phage-based technologies across sectors in the UK, as a forum for researchers, companies, funders and regulators. A recording of the online launch is available, with talks on phage therapy against Salmonella in chickens, clinical phage therapy at NHS Tayside and the commercial development of phage therapeutics.

Salem Microbes and ICAR-CIBA signed an MoU for technology transfer of phage therapy to control bacterial diseases in shrimp hatchery systems. Salem Microbes said it was keen to partner with CIBA to scale up phage technology for aquaculture.

Pitt Magazine recounts how Graham Hatfull and his team applied phage research in an effort to help two teenagers with cystic fibrosis after double-lung transplants and subsequent antibiotic-resistant infections.

PhageCast introduces Célia Pas’s work on engineering R2-type tailocins with VersaTile and her transition from a PhD to industry.