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Abstract
A new way to alter the genome of bacteriophages helps produce large libraries of variants, allowing these bacteria-killing viruses to be designed to target species harmful to human health.
Main text
Antibiotics are usually quite effective at killing bacteria that cause disease, but they often end up eliminating huge swaths of microorganisms beneficial to health . Limiting this collateral damage by solely targeting pathogenic bacteria remains challenging, as only slight differences separate harmful and beneficial bacterial species.
An alternative treatment to chemical antibiotics could be to harness viruses called bacteriophages (or phages), which have evolved to recognize and prey on highly specific strains of bacteria (Abedon et al., 2011). Yet engineering phages to target harmful bacterial species requires scalable genetic tools that can precisely alter the genomes of these viruses. Now, in eLife, Srivatsan Raman and colleagues at University of Wisconsin-Madison –
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded $2.5 million in grants to 12 institutes around the world to support research on bacteriophage therapy. These awards represent NIAID’s first series of grants focused exclusively on research on this therapy, an emerging field that could yield new ways to fight antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. A 2019 report from CDC found that antibiotic-resistant pathogens cause more than 2.8 million infections in the U.S. each year and more than 35,000 people die.
A computer-generated rendition of a bacteriophage.
Image/NIAID
Bacteriophages (or “phages”) are viruses that can kill or incapacitate specific kinds of bacteria while leaving other bacteria and human cells unharmed. By gathering naturally-occurring phages, or by modifying or engineering phages to display certain properties, researchers hope to create novel anti-bacterial therapeutics. Because phages eliminate ba
NIAID awards $2 5 million in grants to support research on bacteriophage therapy news-medical.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from news-medical.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded $2.5 million in grants to 12.