Building better bacteriophage to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria

New Rochelle, NY, November 21, 2019-Researchers are pursuing engineered bacteriophage as alternatives to antibiotics to infect and kill multi-drug resistant bacteria. The potential for an innovative synthetic biology approach to enhance phage therapeutics and the role a biofoundry can play in making this approach feasible and effective is discussed in an article in PHAGE: Therapy, Applications, and Research, a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers launching in early 2020. Click here to read the full-text article free on the PHAGE website through December 21, 2019.

The article entitled “Building Better Bacteriophage with Biofoundries to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria” was coauthored by Karen Weynberg, PhD, The University of Queensland (St. Lucia) and CSIRO Future Science Platform (Brisbane) and Paul Jaschke, PhD, Macquarie University (Sydney), Australia. The authors discuss the promise of phage therapy as a radical alternative to antibiotics, and the use of synthetic biology to engineer novel phage with desirable characteristics. They also describe the emerging use of cutting-edge facilities called biofoundries, in which automated, high-throughput laboratory processes can accelerate the bioengineering, modification, and selection of bacteriophage, making their development more effective and cost-efficient.

“This article nicely summarizes the state-of-the-art in terms of using molecular biology to create ‘next-generation phages,'” says Martha Clokie, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of PHAGE and Professor of Microbiology, University of Leicester (U.K.). “Once we have understood the biology of these organisms, the sky is possibly the limit in terms of how we can engineer them to make them even more attuned to specific purposes.”

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PHAGE: Therapy, Applications, and Research is the only peer-reviewed journal dedicated to fundamental bacteriophage research and its applications in medicine, agriculture, aquaculture, veterinary applications, animal production, food safety, and food production. Led by Editor-in-Chief, Martha Clokie, PhD, University of Leicester, United Kingdom, the Journal showcases groundbreaking research, reviews, commentaries, opinion pieces, profiles and perspectives dedicated to defining the roles of phages in all facets of microbiology and microbial ecology and exploring their potential to manipulate bacterial communities and treat infection. More information is available on the PHAGE website.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including The CRISPR Journal, Human Gene Therapy, Microbial Drug Resistance, and Viral Immunology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 90 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.