A fully-realized Phage Foundry will enhance our ability to share knowledge, technology, and viral reagents and will accelerate the bio-based economy.
Background
At its current rate, the rise of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) infections is predicted to paralyze our industries and healthcare facilities while becoming the leading global cause of loss of human life. With limited new antibiotics on the horizon, we need to invest in alternative solutions.
Bacteriophages (phages)—viruses that target bacteria—offer a powerful alternative approach to tackle bacterial infections.
Despite recent advances, we lack broad-scale mechanistic understanding of phage-host interactions in clinically and agriculturally relevant bacteria. The ability to rationally design therapeutic phage formulations to overcome AMR pathogens quickly and with seamless adaptability to new pathogens can revolutionize the approach to combat AMR.
Phage Foundry Overview
The BRaVE Phage Foundry is an enabling capability bringing together diverse expertise and technologies to develop sufficient knowledge to 1) rapidly “predict” when different bacteriophages (phages) will be effective in treatment of a given infection and 2) quickly and rationally modify antimicrobial formulations to attack evolved pathogens. The Phage Foundry capability integrates in-depth, multi-scale characterization of phage-host molecular interactions with high-throughput isolation, phage-host coevolution, machine learning, and engineering design principles to enable rapid development of targeted phage-based therapeutics against drug-resistant pathogens impacting U.S. industries, economy, and security. The Phage Foundry platform will serve as an integrative knowledge base that will help power the bio-based economy by enabling development of other phage-based biotechnologies, including diagnostic tools and strategies to treat emerging viral threats in the future.
Primary research outputs include:
- The largest and most well-characterized phage bank for top pathogens.
- Platforms to quickly and rationally modify phage formulations to attack the evolved pathogens.
- Novel methods for directed evolution of phages to counteract bacterial resistance and synergies with antibiotics.
- Sufficient knowledge to rapidly “predict” when different phage and antibiotics will be effective in treatment of a given infection.
