Community Board
The community board is a place for phage researchers and phage enthusiasts to share news and seek advice, collaborations, opportunities, and more. Every week we highlight the best community posts on our newsletter, Capsid & Tail.
Have a question or request for the phage community? Post it below and reach hundreds of phage enthusiasts spanning academia, industry, medicine, and beyond.
Showing 721 community posts
Phages.fr is hosting the 9th French Phage Network Meeting, taking place next week in Sète, France. This annual conference aims to bring together French phage researchers to share recent findings, discuss collaborations, and advance the field of phage biology and applications.
New social network alert! A bunch of phage people are now on Bluesky!
Atif Khan, Jyot Antani, James Gurney, and Richard Allen White III have curated and shared phage-related ‘Starter Packs’ to help newcomers find the phage community on the platform:
- Global Bacteriophage-ologist
- Virome, Phage, and Viruses
- Bacteriophage Science
- Also, check out the hashtag #phagesky
Once you’ve created your account, click to follow everyone on each of these starter packs, and message the creators to request being added to the lists!
Frontiers is hosting a virtual seminar called Visualizing the microbiome: data-driven discoveries on January 18, 2024.
Rob Knight from the UC San Diego will discuss key findings from microbiome research projects, innovative data visualization techniques, and AI applications in microbiome studies.
The Phage Collection Project, led by early career researchers at the University of Southampton, is pioneering a citizen science initiative to tackle AMR.
The project combines public education, clinical biobanking, and policy advocacy to advance development and implementation of phage therapeutics in the UK healthcare system.
They’ve just launched a new blog — check it out!
Atif Khan (phage scientist at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center in Chennai, India and longtime Phage Directory volunteer) was interviewed on the “You Make Me Sick!” podcast about his work. They talk phages, biofilms, biofouling, multidrug-resistant organisms, and phage therapy applications.
This Week in Virology (TWiV) recorded a special live podcast episode at the 2024 Viruses of Microbes meeting in Cairns, Australia. Hosts Vincent Racaniello and Jolene Ramsey interviewed phage researchers Krystyna Dabrowska and Rob Lavigne about phage therapy, immunological challenges, personalized approaches, and new developments in phage-derived products.
Key timestamps:
23:50 - Immune responses to phages
28:52 - First 100 cases of phage therapy in Belgium
35:23 - Magistral preparation for phage therapy
41:47 - Endolysins and DNA dark matter
50:51 - Phage-derived tools for non-model organisms
Watch the full podcast on YouTube!
In a recent interview, Dr. Evelien Adriaenssens (Quadram Institute) discusses her career journey to becoming a Group Leader, focusing on the role of phages in the gut microbiome to promote health and combat disease. She reflects on the diverse responsibilities of managing a research group, including mentoring, formulating new research ideas, and fostering collaborations. She also shares insights on her ongoing phage therapy research, specifically targeting Pseudomonas aeruginosa in patients with chronic lung infections.
David Harper discusses the complexities and limitations of using phages as therapeutics in his recent LinkedIn post, emphasizing the challenges posed by the immune system and the size of phages compared to conventional antibiotics.
PhageEU is urging phage researchers to join their mission to raise awareness about the potential applications of phages and influence regulatory environments in the EU, especially with new parliamentary appointments on the horizon PhageEU mission.
Join PhageEU as a member by emailing [email protected]!
Kurzgesagt released a new video on viromes and their impact on health, emphasizing the role of phages in microbiome dynamics! Check it out!
The ISVM (International Society for Viruses of Microbes is launching a logo design competition to create a new visual identity for the society, with submissions due by October 6th via the ISVM Board’s email.
The Phage Hunters Training and Research Program (PHTRP) has launched a fundraiser to support their Phage Training Startup Fund.
This initiative aims to equip young scientists in Africa and other developing countries with the skills needed to combat AMR through phage research. Inspired by the SEA-PHAGES program, PHTRP focuses on in-silico phage hunting and bioinformatics training, empowering the next generation of researchers to address the global AMR crisis.
The funds raised will cover startup registration costs, legal fees, and operational expenses.
Congratulations to Simon Roux for winning the 2025 ASM Microbiome Data Prize for his outstanding contributions to microbiome research!
Only a few more days to vote for the International Society for Viruses of Microbes Executive Board candidates! (Ends Oct 21)
ISVM members are invited to participate in the upcoming elections for the ISVM Executive Board to shape the future of the organization and its initiatives in viruses of microbes research.
How to vote? Check your email (and if you didn’t get one, check your spam folder!) Each member should have gotten an individual email with a voting link.
The Veterinary Biologicals Committee of the International Alliance for Biological Standardization will host a workshop on the quality, safety, and efficacy of phages for veterinary use on September 5, 2024, to discuss strategies for reducing antimicrobial use and combating antimicrobial resistance in animal health details about the workshop.
In episode 2 of the Podovirus podcast, ‘Getting Phage Research Funded’, Jessica Sacher interviews Dr. Joe Campbell, who spent the past decade+ as a program officer at NIAID, the US gov’s main infectious disease funding body.
Dr. Campbell reflects on his role in making it easier for phage research to get NIH funding, and shares his perspective on what’s next for the field, including the growing importance of phage therapy centers like Phage Australia and Phage Canada.
Subscribe to Podovirus to get the next one, which will be an interview with Dr. Jesus Fernandez of Eligo Bioscience about their recent paper on microbiome editing with engineered lambda phage!
Dr. Siân Owen was interviewed the You Make Me Sick podcast about her work using experimental evolution and computational approaches to study AMR bacteria and phages during her postdoc at the Baym Lab at Harvard Medical School. She announced she’s now starting her own lab at the Wadsworth Center in Albany, New York — congrats Siân!!
Daria Van Tyne (University of Pittsburgh) received a $70K grant to optimize phage therapy for Burkholderia spp. infections, showing potential advancements in treating cystic fibrosis patients. Also, Daria has just been promoted to Associate Professor! Congrats Daria!!
The Phage Hunters Training and Research Program in Nairobi has been hosting a ‘Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and Phage Therapy series’ on LinkedIn Live — recordings are available! Recently they had a panel on AMR and phage therapy, and another on phage banks for developing countries featuring panelists like Steffanie Strathdee, Sabrina Green, Tobi Nagel, Atif Khan, and Emmanuel Nnadi.
Ellie Jameson (Bangor University), environmental virologist and scientific illustrator, has published her phage art collection (drawings, cartoons, etc!) on her new website. Check out her work (& reach out to commission her to illustrate your research!).
Dr. Katharina Höfer (Philipps University Marburg) has been awarded a LOEWE top professorship — 2.8 million euros over a period of five years to support her research into the role of RNA modifications in biology and new mechanisms of gene regulation. Congratulations Katharina!
The Women In Phage initiative is conducting a survey to understand the experiences of women in science and research, particularly in bacteriophage research. Your insights will help identify challenges and strategies for future generations. Participate here.
Viruses of Microbes 2024 (Cairns, Australia) has just come to a close, and it looked to be an EPIC event! Check #vom2024 on Twitter for countless updates and recaps of people’s favourite talks!
Also, the next VoM location has officially been announced: it will be July 6-10, 2026 in Prague! Hope to see many of you there!!
The iVoM webinar series season 3 concluded with great success, attracting over 600 registrations from 11 countries and featuring 23 speakers, including 18 early-career researchers, discussing the latest research and advancements in microbial viruses.
ICTV’s Computational Virus Taxonomy Challenge is now open, inviting bioinformaticians to classify a set of viral sequences using a bioinformatics pipeline of their choice or design.
Pipelines should be fully and easily reproducible and code and environment to run it should be made available, and will be evaluated using the Taxonomy Release MSL39 as well as reproducibility, speed, accuracy at different ranks, for different types of viruses, etc.
Contact Cédric Lood and Bas Dutilh with questions or suggestions!
The ISVM has released its Viruses of Microbes-themed issue in microLife journal! Led by Prof. Martin Loessner and Prof. Alexander Harms, the issue highlights recent discoveries in bacterial immunity mechanisms and the importance of phages in the microbiome, based on research presented at the Viruses of Microbes 2023 conference in Tbilisi, Georgia.
IPATH is calling for labs to help find Achromobacter phages for an upcoming clinical trial for cystic fibrosis with phage therapy, inviting contributions and further information via email at [email protected].
On Nov 19-20, the International Alliance for Biological Standardization (Amsterdam, Netherlands) is hosting a virtual scientific workshop about the veterinary use of phages, specifically looking at quality, safety and efficacy. Speakers from Zoetis, Queen Astrid Military Hospital, and more! Submit posters by Sept 16.
In a recent episode of the PhageCast podcast, Graham Hatfull (University of Pittsburgh) discusses the importance of mycobacteriophages and their potential for phage therapy against M. abscessus.
Cytophage Technologies Ltd. have shared the recording of their first investor call since becoming a public company.
A recent episode of BBC Sounds’ “In Our Time” interviewed Martha Clokie and James Ebdon about how phages can be used to track and cure bacterial illnesses.
Tobi Nagel and Francesca Hodges have organized a hybrid meeting to discuss therapeutic phage bank recommendations.
The meeting is scheduled for July 15th in Cairns, Australia from 1-2:30 PM Australian Eastern Standard Time (GMT+10) (5-10 min walk from VoM convention center in Cairns, which will begin at 3pm that day).
The goal is to address differing opinions within the phage community on key topics identified through their global survey.
Please register your interest above if you’ll be coming!
PHAGE: Therapy, Applications, and Research Journal has announced an impact factor increase to 3.5.
The DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) is hosting the “VEGA 2024: Viral EcoGenomics and Applications” symposium, taking place on November 12-13, 2024, in Berkeley, California. The symposium aims to bring together the viral ecogenomics community to discuss capturing and characterizing uncultivated viruses, understanding their ecological roles, and exploring their biotechnological potential.
In an upcoming course in Lyon, France (Nov 12-13 2024), the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) will explore current clinical experiences, compassionate use protocols, cohort studies, and ongoing clinical trials in phage therapy, emphasizing global regulatory navigation and implementation.
Course coordinator: Tristan Ferry.
Register by Oct 27, and apply for an attendance grant by Sept 20.
Lina Zeldovich, an author who grew up in a family of Soviet scientists, published a new book, ‘The Living Medicine: How a Lifesaving Cure Was Nearly Lost—and Why It Will Rescue Us When Antibiotics Fail’. She explores the history and potential of phages, tracing the journey of phage therapy from its discovery to its near extinction and current revival.
Steffanie Strathdee read the book and tweeted “If you thought you knew everything about #phagetherapy, you were wrong!”.
New phage conference alert — this time in South America!!
Phage researchers at the Universidad de los Andes invite the international phage community to Phage Option Congress 2024 (Dec 4-6, 2024 in Cartagena, Colombia).
This will be the 3rd Latin American Meeting on Bacteriophages, and will span phage biology and applications across human, animal and plant health.
Speakers include Sandro Sulakvelidze (Intralytix), Mikeljon Nikolich (Walter Reed Army Institute of Research), Sofia Corte-Real (Technophage), Frenk Smrekar (Jafral), Krystyna Dabrowska (Polish Academy of Sciences), and more to be announced!
Organizers include Alejandro Reyes, Mariana Piuri, Martha Vives, Santiago Hernandez, Viviana Clavijo, and Sandra Morales.
Check out this episode of the Phage Therapy Today podcast, which features Dr. Mercedes Gonzalez from INCATE (an AMR startup funder/accelerator) and Dr. Gregorio Iraola at Kinzbio, an INCATE recipient and founder of a new phage startup in Uruguay, about global funding opportunities for phage therapy.
Wilfried Moreira (Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering) invites submissions to a Special Issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences entitled “Bacteriophage Biology and Bacteriophage-Derived Technologies”.
ASM Microbe 2024 (June 13-17 in Atlanta, Georgia) is hosting a session called Phage Therapy in the Age of AMR: Strategies to Accelerate Phage Therapy from Lab to Market this year! Hear from Ashlan Kunz Coyne, Susan Lehman, Ghady Haidar, Kevin Kim, and more!
The International Bacteriophage Research Consortium (IBRC) & Open Source Pharma Foundation (OSPF) in association with the Indian Society for Bacteriophage Research and Therapy (SBRT) have started a series of talks by clinicians with experience in delivering Phage Therapy.
Dr. Mzia Kutateladze from the G. Eliava Institute of Bacteriophages, Microbiology, and Virology will be giving the last talk of the series on December 22, 2023, at 7.00 PM IST. Join to learn about latest developments and successful case studies of phage therapy.
Phage Phriday on Clubhouse returns for a holiday special on Dec 22, featuring Amanda Burkardt, CEO of new therapeutic phage company Phiogen, and Iddo Weiner, VP of research at BiomX, who recently generated some exciting new phage clinical trial results. Register/check your time zone here!
Phage researchers from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland recently gathered at the 2nd BSVoM hands-on workshop on personalized phage therapy, organized by Jean-Paul Pirnay, Maya Merabishvili, and Tea Glonti and held at the Queen Astrid Military Hospital. Here’s what they learned about the process of phage therapy!
The Nobrega lab at the University of Southampton has launched phagecollection.org, the home of their new initiative to unite citizen scientists searching for phages to combat bacterial infections. They aim to educate the public about AMR and phages, collect clinical isolates and phages, and engage UK policymakers to support phage research and availability as a last resort medicine.
Karen Maxwell (University of Toronto) has been awarded the Arthur B. McDonald Fellowship for her research into antiviral defenses, which uncovered novel CRISPR inhibitors (anti-CRISPRs), according to a recent announcement by NSERC (Canada).
Jan Zheng is chairing a series of AI and infectious diseases talks at Westmead Health Precinct, Sydney, Australia Nov 6-7, as part of the The Short Course in Critical Infection.
Workshop on personalized phage therapy: from lab to the patient - Join the 2nd edition of this exciting workshop Nov 30-Dec 2 in Brussels, Belgium hosted by BSVoM and coordinated by Dr. Jean-Paul Pirnay, Dr. Maya Merabishvilli, and Dr. Tea Glonti, offering theoretical sessions and hands-on lab experiences on techniques for isolating, characterizing, and producing therapeutically relevant phages. Register here.
Atif Khan has created a Whatsapp channel for phage updates, providing researchers with the latest news and information about phages.
BBC StoryWorks is releasing a documentary titled “Race Against Resistance: The Life And Death Struggle To Save Antibiotics”, which focuses on the global race against antimicrobial resistance. The documentary features patients, doctors, scientists, and experts working to ensure we have the medicines we need now and in the future.
I am a Ph.D. graduate in Phage Biology and Therapy seeking a postdoctoral position in phage research. My research expertise lies in the pre-clinical assessment of phages with a focus on phage therapy. I have valuable experience from working as a graduate research fellow at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, NIH, and have authored scientific articles. I am passionate about exploring novel phage-based therapeutic approaches, including phage-host interaction. I am eager to collaborate and contribute to phage research.
Sincerely, Gunaraj Dhungana, Ph.D. in Phage Biology and Therapy
Are you a phage enthusiast looking to isolate your own phage? Check out this beginner-friendly guide by Raphael Hans Lwesya for tips and tricks!
Life Science Network, Denmark interviewed Dr. Michela Gambino about her career from culture and natural heritage conservation to phage microbiology.
This week the PhageCast podcast interviewed Rob Lavigne about his phage work, including P. aeruginosa phage dark matter, the Igy peptide, and the significance of RNA sequencing.
BSVoM Symposium, Belgium is hosting a phage research symposum on September 8, 2023 in Liège (Belgium). Topics will cover: fundamental research in phage ecology, fundamental research in phage biology, and present and future applications of phages.
PhageEurope (Phage EU) is a new coalition of likeminded stakeholders who represent phages in industry, the scientific community and civil society who wants to realize the full potential of phages in Europe. They are holding a webinar 11 July at 16:00 CET on ‘Getting phages into the EU market: challenges, experiences and current outlook.’
TechLink Health has released two phage podcasts on defeating superbugs and the role of phage therapy: one with Steffanie Strathdee, Co-Director of IPATH, and one with Rob McBride, CEO of Felix Biotechnology.
UCSD PREPARE is hosting a phage seminar ‘From Bog to Bedside’ with Steffanie Strathdee on June 29, 2023 at 1:30 pm PT.
Phage Germany is an initiative that aims to promote awareness and adoption of phage therapy, emphasizing the need to educate doctors and pharmacists to improve patient outcomes and combat AMR.
The 4th International Conference on Bacteriophage Research and Antimicrobial Resistance, organized jointly by the CAS in Botany, University of Madras, and Water and Steam Chemistry Division of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facilities, will take place from September 28-30.
With the theme of “Harnessing the Bacteriophages for Human Well-being,” this conference aims to bring together scientists from around the world to discuss the latest findings in bacteriophage research and their potential applications in medicine, agriculture, and environmental science.
Phage Therapy Today released a podcast featuring Dr. Frenk Smrekar, founder and CEO at JAFRAL, discussing the importance of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) in phage therapy.
The special edition of “Microorganisms” titled “The Phage: Biology and Therapeutic Use” is open. Guest editors David Harper and Richard James invite you to submit by July 31, 2023.
The Evergreen Phage Meeting organizing committee invite you to take part in a photo contest and get a chance to win awesome phage swag! Send us your favorite photo featuring or taken with Betty Kutter, and let’s shower her with love at the 25th Biennial Evergreen International Phage Meeting, where your photo will be showcased in a special slide show to honor the Queen of Phage. Dig through your vintage photo album or browse your digital files - we’re excited to see the amazing moments you’ve captured! Good luck! Submit photos to [email protected].
This week Phagecast published a new episode featuring an interview with Martin Loessner! You can hear very valuable insights in what is important to have a successful scientific career together with some phage science: how L-forms become resistant to phages & endolysins, and the implications that this has in phage therapy and endolysin research. Enjoy!
Attention all phage researchers! You’re invited to participate in an exciting initiative to help establish draft phage bank management guidelines for the community.
To get started, please register your interest by completing this pre-questionnaire.
The process will unfold in stages:
Stage 1 (online survey): Gather input from phage experts worldwide on the key topics. Compiled responses shared with participants for input.
Stage 2 (online survey): Collect input, engage leaders to generate specific questions. Compiled responses shared again, highlighting topics with differing opinions.
Stage 3 (in-person meeting): Join in-person July 2nd (day before VoM 2023 in Georgia), to discuss compiled responses. Virtual options available for remote attendees.
Stage 4 (virtual discussions): Engage in virtual discussions to draft and finalize guidelines. Leaders develop drafts for each topic, hold virtual meetings. Compiled draft shared with group; final version published in a peer-reviewed journal, presented at VoM 2024.
Register your interest now and stay tuned for the first survey.
For questions or suggestions, please email:
Tobi Nagel: [email protected]
Francesca Hodges: [email protected]
Sophie Elizabeth Smith via Twitter: Hey is there anyone else going solo to @vom2023 who might want to spend some time exploring Tbilisi with me the week before or after?
Hi there, I am from a lab in National University of Singapore that is looking to see if anyone has any phage strains that are able to combat/infect MRSA? Thanks! Kind regards, Brian Chan ([email protected])
The Africa Phage Forum is organizing a webinar on the tail spike protein diversity of Ackermannviridae phages: From Theory to Practice. Dr. Anders Nørgaard Sørensen, a Post-Doc Researcher at the University of Copenhagen, will be the guest speaker.
BSVoM is hosting a webinar as part of the My Hero and Me webinar series, entitled “From phage components to antimicrobials.”
The Leicester Centre for Phage Research celebrated its grand opening/official launch this week!
Tune in to Science Friday for an interview with Graham Hatfull about phage therapy: “Are Phages a new page in medicine?”
Oluwasegun Daramola of the Ibadan Bacteriophage Research Team was interviewed an episode of the Medlab LabCast called Phage Therapy: The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend.
Congratulations to Evelien Adriaenssens, who has passed her tenure review and become a permanent group leader at The Quadram Institute! Evelien has supported/driven so many phage community efforts over the years. She’s taught us all about how to name and classify our phages & annotate their genomes (watched by almost 2000 of you!), and given feedback on almost every crazy idea we’ve had. (We probably wouldn’t still be doing this whole Phage Directory thing without her!)
Here’s her tweet — let’s all spam her with congratulatory messages!
Introducing PhageCast, a new podcast that brings you news and interviews covering the exciting world of phages. Hosted by a group of PhD students (David, Maria and Alexandre) from the Azeredo Lab (read about their story, published last week in C&T!), this podcast is a great new resource for staying up-to-date with the field!
Phages for Global Health is currently hosting a workshop in Southeast Asia in collaboration with the UST BEATS Research Group (run by Donna May Papa) in the Philippines. Phage scientists from the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia are working together to get trained in phage biology. Check out their Facebook group, where they’re updating with workshop pictures daily!
Our volunteer Atif Khan was selected for the FEMS #OnThisDay volunteer team. The #OnThisDayteam aims to assemble a collection of historically important microbiology events for every single day of the year. These events could be interesting discoveries, the dates of seminal scientific publications, the important moments in the lives of famous microbiologists, or anything that would pique the interest of the microbiology community! Great job Atif!
The 2023 Symposium on New Concepts in Prokaryotic Virus-host Interactions (October 2-4, 2023) will bring together researchers studying new concepts and mechanisms in phage biology, with topics including viral cell biology, anti-viral defenses, and viral impact on microbial communities.
From Sabrina Green via Twitter: Check out this documentary on #phage therapy in Belgium and Portugal. It is in Portuguese but interviews mostly in English.
Kids Research (part of Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network) is hosting a webinar on May 19, 2023 at 2:00 PM AEST on phage therapy entitled “Phage Therapy in Australia: STAMPing out problematic infections”. The webinar will be presented by Phage Australia and local experts, including Ameneh Khatami, Jon Iredell, Stephanie Lynch, Tony Lai, Kylie Sangalang, Rachael Sloane, and will cover the science behind phage therapy, clinical eligibility, and practical nursing perspectives.
The Phage Therapy Today podcast interviewed Johan Wikstroem, the CEO of tolka.ai, about his story in transitioning from tech to biotech and founding a phage therapy company with the goal of treating his own M. abscessus infection and helping others with similar conditions. In the episode “The Ultimate Precision Medicine Story,” Wikstroem discusses the challenges and successes in his journey.
In this podcast, Dr. Jeremy Barr from Monash University and Phage Australia talks about his research on using phages to restore antimicrobial sensitivity in Acinetobacter baumannii.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is organizing a Focus Group meeting on 11 May 2023 to discuss the draft guideline on the quality, safety, and efficacy requirements for bacteriophage therapy in veterinary medicines. The aim is to establish a suitable regulatory framework for these innovative therapies and reduce the use of antibiotics.
The UK Phage Innovation Showcase will take place May 16th, 2023 from 9:30am-4pm in Leicester and online. The event is organized by Innovate UK KTN’s Phage Innovation Network and the University of Leicester’s recently launched Centre for Phage Research. This event celebrates its launch and showcases the knowledge and experience in phage research and development in the UK.
All in-person spaces have now been filled, but you can still sign up to watch the livestream of the keynote speeches and Q&A sessions on the day.
In this episode of Breakpoints podcast, Dr. Saima Aslam and Dr. Daria Van Tyne join Dr. Rachel Britt for a discussion on phage therapy! Tune in for a review of their role in therapy, logistical considerations, the future of phage therapy, and more!
In celebration of International Women’s History Month, this episode of the Phage Files podcast looks back at female phage researchers’ contributions to early phage research. The hosts interview Dr. Elizabeth Kutter (Evergreen State College), who is considered the Mother of Phage Research in the modern scientific era, and Prof. Martha Clokie (University of Leicester), 2020’s recipient of the Outstanding Women in STEM.
From Timofey Skvortsov via Twitter: Hi all, where are you sequencing your new phage/bacterial isolates in the UK/Ireland these days? I’d appreciate any suggestions or insights!
IPATH’s Translational Research in Bacteriophage Therapies Seminar Series has returned this year, featuring three speakers: Daria Van Tyne, Joseph Bondy-Denomy, and Austen Terwilliger. Watch recordings of them on YouTube, and catch upcoming talks from Breck Duerkop, Kimberly Seed, and Paul Turner (either in-person or online through Zoom).
Check out the Special Issue “The Phage: Biology and Therapeutic Use,” published by Microorganisms and edited by Richard James (University of Nottingham) and David R. Harper (Evolution Biotechnologies). The deadline for manuscript submissions is July 31st, 2023.
In this episode of Phage Therapy Today podcast, Dr. Gina Suh shares her recent progress and experience in applying phage therapy at Mayo Clinic.
A European public consultation on a new general chapter in the European Pharmacopeia on phage therapy active substances and medicinal products of human and veterinary use is open (until end of June). This is a unique opportunity to help shape future European pharmaceutical standards for innovative medicinal products. Get your voice heard!
The Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages Meeting in Madison, Wisconsin (Aug 7th-11th) is happening this year.
The Oxford Phage Meeting (Sept 4th-5th) is happening this year.
Hello Phage People,
Does anyone use Phage DNA Isolation Kit from Norgen Biotek? I’m using this kit and trying to increase the DNA concentration. I already did all the additional steps but does anyone have any tricks for increasing concentration? I appreciate it if you mail me your tricks.
Best, Irem
The International Workshop on Ecophage is happening in Valencia, Spain from Sept 12-13, 2023. Join experts in phage research, farmers, food companies, policy makers, and consumer reps in a workshop on phage-based strategies for preventing AMR in the agri-food system.
The recording of the recent Clubhouse audio conversation on GMP phage therapy production (’Just say no to GMP?’) has just been posted! This was a talk hosted last week by Sabrina Green, Adriana Hernandez, Jean-Paul Pirnay, Patrick Druggan, and Barbara Brenner.
The Canadian Society of Microbiologists conference (CSM) is hosting a phage session (Bacteriophage and bacterial defense systems). This year, the conference is hosted in Halifax from June 25th-28th, and the abstract deadline is April 17th.
The UK parliament recently heard evidence on phages for AMR. According to Stephanie Lesage via LinkedIn: “There was a general consensus on the need to embrace the biological and unique nature of phages and find more suitable approaches to stringent GMP production, but also make regulations more flexible by adopting a more pragmatic framework to ensure phages/cocktails can be updated to follow epidemiological evolutions and the unique requirements of some patients.”
Viruses of Microbes is happening this year in Tbilisi, Georgia July 3rd-7th. The deadline for abstract submission is May 1st.
Join the Webinar organized by Africa Phage Forum on ‘‘grant writing and effective communication’’ today from 4 PM West Central Africa Time (GMT+1). Our speaker is Dr. Tobi Nagel, founder and President of Phages for Global Health. Register here
The documentary, Salt in My Soul, follows the life of Mallory Smith, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age 3, and a resistant infection at age 15. In her final days, her father attempted to arrange phage therapy for her, but it was just a little too late.
In Sydney next week? Attend the Sydney screening of Salt in My Soul + expert panel, and hear from international and local experts in AMR and phage therapy, including Ameneh Khatami, Ruby Lin, Jon Iredell (Phage Australia), Richard Alm (CARB-X) and Diane Shader Smith (Mallory’s mother / AMR advocate).
When: Thu., 16 March 2023, 5:00 pm – 8:30 pm AEDT.
From Phage Twitter, via @hayleyn0rdstr0m: Adaptive Phage Therapeutics laid off 30% of the company this morning, including me… So, looking for phage research jobs in the DC metro area again! Drop me a DM if you have leads or want to chat.
The Good Virus is a new book by Tom Ireland that tells the story of phage research, from its beginnings to the present day. Now available for preorder in the UK and the US!
The Africa Phage Forum will be hosting a webinar on this Wednesday, 15th March 2023 at 6:00 PM East Africa Time (EAT). The webinar, titled ‘Scientific Writing & Effective Grant Writing’, will be given by Dr. Tobi Nagel, the Founder and President of Phages for Global Health. Register here!
In this PBS Vitals video, Alok Patel (MD) and Sheena Williams (RN) explore how phage therapy could help humanity win the battle against antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
The next Viruses of Microbes conference will be held in Tbilisi, Georgia on July 3-7, 2023. The conference marks a new era in viral research which has begun with the recognition of viruses of microorganisms – viruses of bacteria, archaea, and microbial eukaryotes as predominant component of the biosphere and led to the identification of these viruses as major players in the global ecology, public health, microbial physiology, and evolution. Registration open now (and limited to 500 participants).
In the latest episode of the Phage Therapy Today podcast, Carrie-Lynn Langlais Furr, CEO and Co-founder at Bacteriophage & Drug Development Consultants (BDDC) talks about how to navigate the drug development and regulatory waters for phage therapies.
Registration is now open for An Unfinished Life: AMR Awareness Australia: In collaboration with organizations across Australia, Diane Shader Smith and Richard Alm of CARB-X are hosting a multi day, multi city, multi speaker event to premiere the Salt in My Soul film and facilitate discussions of AMR and its impacts on patients. In person events will take place March 3-16 across Australia, including Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Key questions: Why hasn’t AMR been solved yet? What needs to happen?
The Phage Innovation Network will be launched by Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Network on Feb 16 2023 with an online event. This network is designed to bring together those in the UK with an interest in bacteriophages, their use and applications across multiple sectors, including healthcare, food and agriculture. Registration is open.
The 6th World Congress on Targeting Phage Therapy 2023 will be held on June 1-2, 2023 in Paris, France. The aim of the meeting is to discuss all aspects related to phages and phage therapy. We will highlight the recent innovations and clinical applications of phages, validation and limitations.
The Ibadan Bacteriophage Research Team, an undergraduate SEA-PHAGES team at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, announces the launch of the 2nd edition of the team’s journal issue, PHAMILIA. This is the very first undergraduate research journal focused on bacteriophage biology. It showcases publications on diverse subjects of bacteriophage biology, from the team and other guest writers. To download: https://ibadanphageresearchteam.org/
Exciting day 🤩 Our newly born GIVoM - Gruppo Italiano Virus of Microbes met for the first time! Italians – in the country and abroad 🇮🇹 - working in this field 🧫🦠🧬 will gather every month to share our research and support each other.❗️PM if you want to know more about this! - via Michela Gambino on LinkedIn
From Phase Genomics via Twitter: Milestone alert! We’re celebrating 150+ papers published using our tech. And there’s a lot to share: our clients made breakthroughs in a broad range of fields from metagenomics to oncology. Here’s a look at the highlights from 2022 (See thread)
Want a reminder about what Phase Genomics is up to? Read COO Kayla Young’s C&T blog post on how they’re mapping phage-host interactions here.
Check out this youtube video of Rob Lavigne’s Phage Oxford 2022 talk.
The Africa Phage Forum will be hosting a webinar on December 6th, 2022 at 3:00 PM East Africa Time (EAT) or 12 PM GMT. The webinar, titled ‘Safety Evaluation of Phages Infecting Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae for Therapy in Low-Resource Settings’, will be given by Dr Noutin F. Michodigni, Ph.D. Register here.
The 3rd International Conference on Bacteriophage Research and Antimicrobial Resistance (ICBRAR – 2022) will be held on 26 & 27 November 2022 at Karnatak University Dharwad in India.
Phages for Global Health is planning to deliver hands-on phage workshops in Africa and Asia again, with a new curriculum that incorporates the best parts of the virtual teaching from the past year into an updated workshop curriculum with 2 components:
- A series of virtual lectures through which phage experts from around the world will teach the key aspects of phage biology and discuss potential antibacterial applications of phages in crops, aquaculture, animals and people
- An in-person training during which the participants will practice isolating phages from local environments in Africa and Asia and begin characterizing them
Their goal is to deliver two trainings in 2023: one for scientists from Southeast Asia and one for those in West Africa. In order to accomplish that, we need to raise the necessary funds. Please consider partnering with Phages for Global Health by making a tax deductible donation!
The Department of Applied Genetics, Karnatak University in association with the Society for Bacteriophage Research and Therapy, India is organizing the 3rd International Conference on Bacteriophage Research and Antimicrobial Resistance – 2022 to create a scientific platform for scientists, researchers, industry representatives, academicians, Postdoctoral scholars, Ph.D. scholars, Postgraduate students, Undergraduate students and other stakeholder to meet, discuss, exchange the knowledge/ideas and to develop collaborations and cooperations.
The Ibadan Phage Research Team has released recordings from their recent phage symposium for World Phage Week — check it out!
Sabrina Green via Twitter: “Is there an early career researcher that you really enjoyed hearing from in a presentation? Preferably #phage person or microbial virus related?!”
In this episode of the Phage Therapy Today podcast, host Steven Yang sits down with Dr. Steven Theriault from Cytophage Technologies Inc. to discuss how he is building and expanding businesses in both clinical and agricultural markets across the globe.
Connor Brown on Twitter: “have a set of de novo assembled viral genomes from metagenome and trying to figure out who they are and their potential hosts. very few have BLAST hits against ncbi. any suggestions? #Bioinformatics #metagenomics #microbiome #phage #wastewater”
My Hero & Me - Different flavors of phage-host prediction powered by machine learning: how and why?: Dimi Boeckaerts and Simon Roux discuss different approaches to building machine learning models for phage-host prediction in this webinar.
Craig MacLean on Twitter: “Quick question: does anybody know of fluorescent dyes that can be used to stain phage? Want to measure ability of phage to adsorb to bacterial cells they cannot infect.”
Viruses Journal is now accepting nominations for their 2022 Early Career Investigator Award. The prize will be awarded to two early-career investigators demonstrating excellence in virology, and will include an invitation to speak at the Viruses International Virology Conference in 2024.
Stephanie Lesage, Richard James and Francesca Hodges have spearheaded Phage-UK, which has >45 clinicians interested in phage therapy, who work in 15 different UK Hospital Trusts; with a Phage-UK Clinical Steering Group of 18 members. Their new website is now available: https://www.phageuk.com/
Dear ISVM Members,
We are pleased to announce the results of our 2022 ISVM Executive Board election. Thank you to 292 of you who participated in the election of the new Board members. The New ISVM Board members for 2023-2024 are listed below:
ISVM Executive board members
President: Zuzanna Drulis-Kawa (Poland)
President-elect: Lone Brøndsted (Denmark)
Vice-President: Hany Anany (Canada)
Treasurer: Tracey Peters (USA)
Secretary/Information Officer: Aleksandra Petrovic-Fabijan (Australia)
Membership Secretary: Cedric Lood (Belgium)
Web Developer: Cristina Moraru (Germany)
ISVM Staff functions
Industry outreach: Sandra Morales (Australia)
Assistant Secretary: Milan Gerovac (Germany)
This new Board will convene in January 2023 and will represent ISVM members through 2023-2024.
— The ISVM Executive Board
A kind reminder about the Africa Phage Forum Webinar which will be held online on Oct 26, 2022 2:00 PM in Brussels or 3:00 PM East Africa Time. The talk will cover the long and winding road from phage research, over phage production, to authorized phage applications in patients in Belgium. Save the date to learn about phage therapy in Belgium and celebrate the World Phage Week with us. Registration link
Dear Phage Phans,
We’d love to hear all your VoM Portugal stories— esp. since we couldn’t go! Email or tweet us, and we’ll post them here in Capsid! [email protected] / @phagedirectory — also send us pics!
What was your favorite talk?
What was one (biggest) thing you learned or took away?
What did you love about VoM Portugal?
The National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) are hosting a joint workshop on bacteriophage therapy on October 25, 2022.
Dear Phage Family,
I have trouble isolating Listeria phages from environmental samples. I used the method from the article named ‘Silage Collected from Dairy Farms Harbors an Abundance of Listeriaphages with Considerable Host Range and Genome Size Diversity’ by Vongkamjan et al.
Do you have any tips for isolating Listeria phages?
I would be very glad if you send me tips.
e-mail: [email protected]
Thanks,
İrem
Genome Startup Day Fall 2022: Bacteria Breakthroughs is a virtual event on October 5th, 2:00-3:00 pm PST that will feature a fireside chat with John Eisen, PhD, UC Davis professor and renowned genomics and microbiology researcher, and Ivan Liachko, PhD, Founder and CEO for Phase Genomics, as well as a panel discussion with startup founders Jessica Sacher, PhD, of Phage Directory, Nathan Brown, PhD, of Parallel Health and Minmin (Mimi) Yen, PhD, of PhagePro.
The 1st hybrid event co-organised by Phage-UK will be held in Oxford, UK on Friday 7th October 2022 from 17:30 to 20:00.
Very generously hosted by the #saidbusinessschool in Oxford, UK, co-organised with Will Battersby, film director, and Diane Shader Smith, mother of the late patient featured in the film. The in-person evening will start at 17:30 with the screening of Salt in My Soul, a powerful and touching film featuring Mallory, a patient with cystic fibrosis, who sadly could not be treated early enough with bacteriophages to survive an antibiotic-resistant super-bug.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion on bacteriophage therapy in the UK, shared live, online, from 19:15.
If you would like to attend the event in person in Oxford at 17:30, kindly send an email to [email protected] directly.
For those who are further away and would like to attend the event remotely, please register for the online event.
PhageSuisse symposium - Phage therapy: a reality at the bedside. Sept 21; all-day event starting at 8am Swiss time. Free event but registration requested. This symposium will be in hybrid format. 90 seats are available on site on a first come first served principle. Webex link will be provided very soon.
PHAGE Journal has selected Nikoline Olsen, Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, who co-authored A New High-Throughput Screening Method for Phages: Enabling Crude Isolation and Fast Identification of Diverse Phages with Therapeutic Potential, for the Rosalind Franklin Society/Mary Ann Liebert Award in Science. Winners will receive $1,000, a personalized plaque, and a feature in the RFS Awards in Science book.
Congratulations Nikoline!!
I am looking for phage Phi11. If anyone can send me this phage I’d be ever so grateful. Email: [email protected]
Ibadan Bacteriophage Research Team currently has an open call for abstracts, perspective pieces and article submission for the 2nd issue of our PHAMILIA Journal.
Theme: Bacteriophages.
Submissions are open to Undergraduate and Graduate students, Early-Career researchers, Research organizations, and Labs.
Deadline: Sept 1, 2022.
Submission: [email protected]
Never miss another phage event or deadline — you can now subscribe to Phage Calendar! Thanks to Sayde Perry, one of our star Phage Directory volunteers, for setting it up!
Subscribe to the Google calendar here.
If you use iCal, add it to your calendar with this .ics file.
Currently we’re adding conferences and deadlines to register for phage-related events and beyond. If you have anything you’d like to add to the calendar, fill out this form — please include the name, date(s), URL and optional short description.
Video series: 3-part interview on phage therapy for recurrent UTI and beyond: Dr. Sabrina Green, Dr. Saima Aslam and Dr. Austen Terwilliger.
Hi everyone, after being virtual in 2021, our 2022 “Viral EcoGenomics and Applications” (VEGA) meeting is back in-person Oct 6 – 7, in the beautiful and sunny (although sometimes a bit foggy) Bay Area! (specifically on the Berkeley Lab campus).
This will be a two-day meeting with talks and discussions about everything related to viruses of microbes, especially phages, of course everything 'omics (especially metagenomics and metatranscriptomics), but also genetic engineering, phage-base biotechs, and more!
The Phage Bites symposium is back! With student/ECR talks and expert guest panelists Keith Shearwin, Stefanie Barbirz and Michael J. McDonald discussing #phage #adaptive #strategies. Free to attend! 2nd Aug 2022. Online. Register and submit an abstract.
Jon Iredell (Director of Phage Australia) & Jessica Sacher (Phage Directory) will take part in an interactive ‘Meet the Researcher’ webinar hosted by the WIMR Foundation on phage therapy for AMR infections, and the work they’re doing at Phage Australia. This webinar is aimed at a public audience and all are welcome. Wed, 17 Aug 2022, 12.30pm–1.30pm, AEST.
The newly formed Belgian Society for Viruses of Microbes is excited to announce a 1-day inaugural symposium on Sept 23rd, 2022 in Leuven, Belgium!
In parallel, the BSVoM team is guest-editing a special issue in Viruses. They call on all Belgian scientists and their international collaborators to submit their related research in this upcoming issue.
Drafting international guidelines for phage banks — initial brainstorming & organizational meeting
We would like to gather a working group that will draft suggested guidelines over the coming months. This brainstorming meeting is open to anyone in person or on Zoom (though please do not post the Zoom link on social media for security reasons), including those who already have experience managing phage banks and those who would like to initiate a phage bank.
When: Lunchtime (12:30 - 1:30) on Wednesday, July 20th (Portugal time) in Meeting Room #1 at Palacio Vila Flor (VoM2022 conference venue).
Any questions, contact Tobi Nagel: [email protected].
INCATE, the Incubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe, INCATE brings together translational and basic research, industry, experienced entrepreneurs and investors to accelerate your innovation. We do this by providing advice, community and funding.
Phages are of particular interest and we already support several start-ups in the field.
Contact: [email protected]
I was wondering if anyone has a library (small or large) of Campylobacter phages and willing to share. If yes, please contact me at [email protected].
Baylor College of Medicine is putting out a reverse phage alert. If you need phage for patients we have some purified, USP certified, sequenced and endotoxin quantified ready for use!
- 2 phage cocktails for E. coli
- 1 phage cocktail for S. maltophilia
- 1 phage for P. aeruginosa.
Physicians that are interested please contact [email protected]
The Targeting Infectious Diseases Committee is hosting the 6th World Conference on Targeting Phage & Antibiotic Resistance November 24-25 2022 in Paris, France & online.
The 2-day meeting will gather leading experts from around the world to explore the most recent studies in phage therapy including its pros and cons. The major aim is to cover the aspects of phage therapy today, especially with the emergence of phage resistance. It will also shed light on the new bacteriophage-based innovations and discoveries.
Register by August 30 get the early bird offer.
PhageSuisse is hosting a phage webinar with by Prof. Lars Fieseler from the Institute of Food and Beverage Innovation in Zurich and Wädenswil, Switzerland. He will give a talk about synergy between Erwinia amylovora tailspike protein and phage.
The Ibadan Bacteriophage Research Team (IBRT) is setting up a Twitter space event to discuss the interlink between biomedical research and programming languages via the team’s Twitter handle. Topic: The Confluence: Programming languages and Biomedical Research Date: 01st July, 2022. Time: 6pm Nigerian time (5pm GMT). Venue: Twitter Spaces: @IbadanPhageTeam
Webinar: Embracing the Australian Pathway to Phage Therapy in Canada: Connect Globally, Act Locally.
Hosted by AMMI (Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada)
Tuesday, June 28th at 6pm - 7pm EDT Ottawa (Wednesday, June 29th at 8am - 9am AEST Sydney).
Join the AMMI Canada Phage Therapy Working Group and invited speakers, Dr. Jon Iredell and team to illustrate how Phage Australia was created and developed research strengths and opportunities.
Joining the discussion are Jessica Sacher and Jan Zheng from Phage Directory, a data partner with Phage Australia, on how anyone, anywhere can connect on phage therapy.
A Q&A period will follow the presentation, tying in Canada’s unique capabilities.
Phase Genomics has partnered with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to generate a global scale repository of phage-microbe interactions to create improved diagnostics and therapeutics.
They’re looking for collaborators who may be interested in providing samples in exchange for getting the data back, to be used for publishing, grants, etc.
We warmly invite you to attend you to attend our 12th annual Oxford bacteriophage conference – the longest running phage conferences series in Europe – which will be held on 05-06 September 2022.
We are committed to holding this conference as a ‘virtual-in-person’ hybrid event at our traditional venue of St Hilda’s College, Oxford, UK (COVID-19 situation permitting).
Get involved in shaping the conference agenda, which will include most aspects of bacteriophage research and application in medicine, food and biotechnology. We welcome proposals for speakers and topics.
We invite emerging researchers, including final-year doctoral students and early-/mid-career postdoctoral researchers/junior group leaders to play an active role in putting together ECR symposia on topics of their interest in the field, and to apply to present.
Please email [email protected] with any questions.
I was wondering if there was an unpublished case of a phage therapy done which I could write a case report about. If so please contact me at [email protected]
Hi everyone, I have isolated a few phages - 2 are Jumbo phage. I have sequnced (350 kbp) these phages. I need help in sequence analysis and can collaboratively publish it. Email: [email protected]
Reagan Kanaabi is looking for help with TEM and sequencing for his phage project: Hi Phage friends, I am working on a proposal for isolating Acinetobacter Baumannii Bacteriophages for ICU. Though still at proposal writing stage, I would love to find a collaborating Laboratory to assist me in the TEM imaging and molecular sequencing and analysis. incase you can, Kindly inbox thank you.
If you can help, please respond to Reagan via the Instill platform.
Register here to attend the upcoming ESGNTA online course on ‘personalised phage therapy: basic principles of monitoring and treatment’. The online course will run from 7 - 10 June, 2022 with a great line-up of experts in the field.
New NIAID request for applications: Partnerships for the Development of Novel Therapeutics To Combat Select Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria and Fungi (R01, Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to solicit research applications for milestone-driven projects focused on preclinical development of lead candidate therapeutics and related countermeasures against antibiotic resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacteriaceae, or Candida auris. Applications must include a Product Development Strategy attachment. Substantive investment by industrial participants is highly encouraged.
Deng’s lab is delighted to announce the launch of a Special Issue in Viruses entitled “Phage–Host Interactions: From Communities to Single Particles”. We would welcome original research and reviews exploring the interactions between phages and their bacterial hosts on community and single cells levels.
Register to attend The Phage Canada Virtual Symposia 2022! This virtual event will be held August 17th - 19th and aims to promote the exchange of ideas within the phage field, provide a forum for students and postdocs to present their research and foster interactions between phage researchers. Deadline to register is Aug 13.
Phage Canada is hosting our 2022 (Virtual) Symposia, August 17-20th. Over three half-days, we will feature (I) Undergraduate Education & Research, (II) Graduate & Post Graduate Research, and (III) Career Opportunities in Phage Research. The emphasis is on showcasing the fantastic research being done by trainees in Canada.
Attendance is open to everyone, and is free - although capacity limits may require prioritizing those with Canadian research affiliations.
For more information, check out our website: https://event.fourwaves.com/phage2022
The Ibadan Bacteriophage Research Team (IBRT) is setting up a Twitter space event to discuss Undergraduate Phage Research in Africa via the team’s Twitter handle.
Topic: Undergraduate Phage Research in Africa: Success stories and Challenges
Date: 06 May, 2022
Time: 6pm Nigerian time (5pm GMT)
Venue: Twitter Space @IbadanPhageTeam
UltraRare Bio on Twitter: “Our latest podcast episode is live! Learn about how a decentralized network of researchers and doctors find cures for drug-resistant infections w/ @phagedirectory founders @JessicaSacher and @yawnxyz”
This registration is for the virtual portion of the 2022 Viromics Workshop held at OSU, May 11-13. On the first day (May 11), there will be a mini-symposium, consisting of four talks from our teaching staff. These will be broadcasted live via zoom. It is for this session only that this registration form is for. Closer to the date, we will send the zoom invite.
Missed out on the last Phage Phriday Clubhouse? Check out the recording to hear Adriana Carolina, Sabrina Green and Paul Pirnay talk about GMP phage production with Milan Bunata of MB Pharma.
Phage researchers came together in Nairobi recently for a symposium entitled the “Status of Bacteriophage Research in Kenya”. This exciting event — the first national phage meeting in Africa — was co-hosted by the Kenya Medical Research Institute and the Institute of Primate Research, both headquartered in Nairobi.
Organizers and attendees included many former participants of the training workshops that Phages for Global Health (PGH) has delivered over the past 5 years in East Africa, and the president of PGH, Dr. Tobi Nagel, gave a keynote address virtually from the US.
A major goal of the Symposium was to strategize about how a centralized collection of phages — called a phage bank — might be established and utilized in Kenya to address the nation’s antibiotic resistance crisis. This idea was the focus of a recent scientific article published by PGH and colleagues.
There is now a dedicated phage sub-community on Twitter: “Phage Twitter”! Created by Sabrina Green (@Motherofphage on Twitter). Try it out here.
You’re invited to Africa Phage Forum #7, which will be a talk called ‘Phage Display - an old resource for new applications’ by Dr. Ivone Martins. The event is currently set to take place the 12th April 2021 at 2pm GMT+3, and will last approximately 1 hour. https://apf.phage.directory/schedule/apf-webinar-7
The 2022 Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages Meeting at University of Wisconsin, Madison is Aug 1-5, 2022 (in person!). Register now!
iVoM Season 2, episode #6: Models for Viral Action.
Date: 6 pm CET, April 12th, 2022.
Register at https://ivom.phage.directory
Talks
- Modeling the Ecological and Therapeutic Impacts of Bacteriophage - an Imperfect Predator, by Prof. Joshua Weitz, Georgia Tech, USA
- Why are there so many short prophages? The genetic repertoire of active and cryptic prophage sequences, by Prof. Lindi Wahl, Western University, Canada
- Lord of the Broken Rings: how ATPase ring motors drive genome packaging in dsDNA viruses, by Dr. Marc Morais, Univ. of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB Health), USA
Chairs
- Dr. Matthias Fischer , Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany
- Prof. Corina Brussaard , Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Netherlands
Hi all! I am a student at a Data Analysis school in France (“OpenClassrooms with ENSAE-ENSAI”) and we have the possibility to do a free project (has to put to use stats/data methods). I am interested in doing something related to phages. I am not familiar with open source biology databases and not confident defining a problem to attempt to solve. I was wondering if someone might be able to help me with that? I’ll quickly mention I recently passed a “molecular biology : transcription” EdX course, my Python >> R skills, contact me at tomsadigh [at] protonmail [dot] com. — Thomas Sadigh Rezvani
Bacteriophages in Science and Clinical Use: First strategic meeting of the German Center for Infection Research to promote translational research in the field of bacteriophages.
Date: 11/12th of July 2022 in Frankfurt, Germany.
The symposium aims at connecting German researchers and physicians. Together we want to define a common roadmap for future translational phage research.
Questions? Ask [email protected]
iVoM Season 2, episode #5: Environmental impact of virus-host interactions
Date: 2 pm CET, Tuesday, March 15th, 2022
Register at https://ivom.phage.directoryy
Talks
Coupling metagenomics to correlative microscopy for identification of novel viruses in the deep biosphere
- Prof. Alexander Probst, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
From phage to shark: microbial and macrobial predation govern state transitions on coral reefs
- Dr. Cynthia Silveira, International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB)
Harnessing virus for alleviating plant stress
- Dr. Neeti Sanan-Mishra, International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB)
Chairs
- Dr. Matthias Fischer , Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany
- Prof. Corina Brussaard , Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Netherlands
Want an update on the current state of phage therapy in Australia? Get your bite-sized fix with #PhageBites! The Australian Society for Microbiology’s Bacteriophage SIG online symposium is March 1st – register here to hear from PhD/ECR speakers @_reneenicole, @RRocapinilla, @KatharineMuscat & @NandoGordillo. Plus a phage expert panel @Iredell_Lab, @JeremyJBarr & Dr. Sandra Morales!
𝔸𝕕𝕣𝕚𝕒𝕟𝕒 ℂ𝕒𝕣𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕒 on Twitter: “I’m discussing Phage Phriday: Phages in Italy with @MotherOfPhage, @PaulPirnay, and Phage Club. Phorza Italia! See you tomorrow, Feb 25 at 11:00 AM PST in @clubhouse. Join us!”
Rainn Wilson (Dwight from ‘The Office’) is hosting a phage therapy event!!
When: Tuesday Feb 8th at 4pm PT / 7pm ET. This is to discuss the recent documentary, Salt in My Soul, which follows Mallory Smith’s life with cystic fibrosis and attempts to get phage therapy.
Panelists will be Will Battersby, director of the film, as well as Mallory’s mother Diane Shader Smith, brother Micah Smith, and friend Maya Humes, as well as phage therapy scientist Ben Chan, Steffanie Strathdee, and Gunnar Esiason, a cystic fibrosis patient advocate.
Register here for this free online event!.
And if you haven’t seen the film yet, watch it here!
NIAID’s Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Preclinical Services for Biopharmaceutical Product Development is now live. Note: Individual NIAID staff cannot provide any additional information while the solicitation is open—please review the solicitation carefully and address any questions to the contacts listed in the solicitation link above. — Contributed by Joe Campbell, NIAID
Hello! We are working on a Phage engineering project in Lisa Morici, PhD’s lab at Tulane University. We are looking for any sequenced or unsequenced phage for ATCC 19606 and 17978 (Lytic preferred) or any other sequenced phage for Acinetobacter baumannii (w/Bacteria) that anyone is willing to share with us. Thanks! Please contact me at [email protected].
The first ESGNTA Online Course titled: “Personalised Phage Therapy: Basic Principles of Monitoring and Treatment”, will take place virtually on the 7-10th of June 2022.
It will include four sessions with cutting-edge scientific talks in the field of personalised phage therapy, including (1) therapeutic monitoring, (2) immune response to bacteriophages, (3) formulation and administration of bacteriophages for therapy, and (4) current state and prospects of oral phage therapy.
Register here by June 1 2022.
€50 for ESCMID members and €100 for non-members
Viruses of Microbes 2022 (taking place in-person in Guimarães, Portugal this July!) registration and abstract submission are open!
The conference is targeted to a wide-ranging audience, interested in both the fundamental and applied aspects of virus exploitation, and is thus organized into the following topics:
- Ecology and evolution of microbial viruses
- Virus structures and function
- Virus-host interaction: overcoming cell barriers
- Virus-host interaction: molecular mechanisms
- Virus-host interaction: host defence and viral evasion mechanisms
- Agro-food, veterinary and environmental biotechnology applications
- Biotechnology applications in health care
- Current state and latest developments of phage therapy
This is the flagship conference of the ISVM — definitely not to be missed!
ESGNTA is a new study group of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) dedicated to non-traditional antimicrobials including phage.
People interested in joining the Executive Committee (2022-24 term) can now be nominated. ESGNTA members are eligible and can propose nominations, can nominate other members or support members that have been already nominated.
Nomination phase: 10/01/2022 - 14/02/2022
Election phase: 03/03/2022 - 17/03/2022
New Executive Committee takes office at ECCMID 2022.
Welcome new Instill members this month! David Adams, Nouri Ben Zakour, Leon Steiner, Kafayath Fabiyi, David Adams, Yédia Franshesca Djohoun, Danielle Peters, Vijay Singh Gondil.
Want to give and get help from your fellow phage community members with their experiments and manuscripts?
Hi, I’m looking for a Staph aureus phage that is either phage K or a close relative. I want to use this in my animal model of diabetic foot ulcer infection. I’m at Flinders University in Australia. Thanks. Peter Speck ([email protected])
In an effort to help companies navigate the development of their bacteriophage product, IHMA’s VP Global Microbiology Services & CSO, Daniel Sahm has compiled a summary of key considerations to address prior to beginning clinical trials.
CDC has some AMAZING new interactive visualizations for Antibiotic Resistance by species, geography, and indication. Great for educating people on how big the problem is. Check it out! — Contributed by Natalie Ma via Twitter
Phage Directory’s new structured peer feedback platform, Instill Science, is live!
Would you jump on a 30 min zoom call to help a fellow phage researcher talk through a problem? Or provide second set of eyes on someone’s work?
Looking for a new phage podcast? Check out Phage Therapy Today, a podcast aimed to deliver insights into current advancements and challenges in phage therapy from academia, financial, regulatory, manufacturing and entrepreneurial perspectives!
Head on over to Ohio State’s Center of Microbiome Science YouTube channel to watch all of the 2021 Viromics Workshop Webinar Series.
New Instill Request: Hi! I would like to get help on defining what is a phage-derived gene. I am often confused with defining the origin of a gene since it could be found in a phage genome but actually derived from a bacteria. If you want to help, we can set up a Zoom meeting to talk about it! Thank you very much, Carmen Gu Liu
Evelien Adriaenssens has asked a question “What is your favourite genome comparison visualisation tool? EasyFig and Mauve don’t work for me anymore after updating OS. Clinker is great, but doesn’t compare the nucleotide sequence. BRIG works, but I don’t want a circle”. If you have any suggestions, head over to her Twitter thread and leave a comment!
Thank you to everyone that joined us for our final PHAVES for 2021! The seminar was a by Dr. Stephanie Lynch talking about phage therapy for skin infections in dogs — watch the recording here! If you miss any of the PHAVES events you can always watch the recordings on the Phage Directory YouTube.
Official trailer for ‘Salt in My Soul’, a documentary about Mallory Smith, the young woman with CF who passed away in 2017 just before she could receive phage therapy.
The Africa Phage Forum is excited to announce the APF 2021 Symposium, taking place next week!
Theme: Opportunities in One Health for Phage Research in Africa.
Speakers include Dr. Emmanuel Nnadi, Dr. Evelien Adriaenssens, Dr. Janet Nale, Dr. Jeroen Wagemans, Prof. Paul Turner, Prof. Martha Clokie, Dr. Tobi Nagel, Dr. Jonas D Van Belleghem, and Dr. Jesca Nakavuma.
Talks will run Monday Dec 13, Thursday Dec 14, and Friday Dec 17.
All past attendees of APF have been invited; please register here to receive the join links if you haven’t already.
phageSuisse is hosting a webinar on December 7th on “Evaluation of phage therapy for the treatment of Staphylococcus aureus endovascular infections” by Jonathan Save PhD Student – University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Register here.
Thank you to everyone that joined us for our November PHAVES, which was a seminar by Prof. Julianne Grose (phage researcher) and Dr. Whitney Greene, DVM (veterinarian) talking about phage therapy for a sea turtle — watch the recording here! If you miss any of the PHAVES events you can always watch the recordings on the Phage Directory YouTube.
Resist NOW is a science-fiction comic anthology (80+ page book with 8 different short sci-fi comics) about current research on antibiotic resistance. Includes phage artwork and content by Ellie Jameson, Mireille Ansaldi and more! Support this project through Kickstarter!
Anthony Kicic, Stephen Stick and Anna Tai will provide a (virtual) phage therapy information session on 30 Nov at 7-8pm AWST (Perth, Australia). Email [email protected] to RSVP & get the link.
New collaborator request on Instill, Phage Directory’s new structured peer feedback & collaboration platform:
Marwan M. Saleh has made a Collaboration Request:
“I’d like help making sure I’ve done my phage genome annotation correctly”
The Ibadan Bacteriophage Research Team, an undergraduate SEA-PHAGES team at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria announces the launch of its first journal issue PHAMILIA. The first undergraduate research journal in bacteriophage biology showcases student and faculty team members, as well as publications on diverse subjects of bacteriophage biology from the team and other guest writers.
Many of us are excited for the upcoming Viruses of Microbes (VoM) conference finally taking place summer 2022 in Portugal (after being rescheduled from 2020). In collaboration, the International Society for Viruses of Microorganisms (ISVM), Phage Directory, and the organizers of VoM 2022 are excited to announce Season 2 of iVoM, a series of online lectures from prominent researchers studying viruses of microbes. Seven sessions will run from December 2021 to May 2022, in the lead-up to the exciting in-person version of VoM, July 2022.
The first iVoM2 event will be Dec. 8th at 12:00 PM (noon) CET, under the theme "Control on Viral Action: regulation of viral activity by other viruses and mobile genetic elements".
It will feature talks by:
- Dr. Aude Bernheim, INSERM, France: “Systematic and quantitative view of the antiviral arsenal of prokaryotes”
- Prof. Martin Polz, Univ. of Vienna, Austria: “The dynamics of bacterial innate defenses against phage”
- Dr. Matthias Fischer, MPI for Medical Research, Germany: “The sleeper within - how endogenous virophages may defend protists against giant viruses”
Chair:
- Prof. Corina Brussaard (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Netherlands)
- Dr. Alex Petrovic Fabijan (Westmead Institue for Medical Research and University of Sydney, Australia)
Register at https://ivom.phage.directory!
The rest of iVoM Season 2 will take place in 2022 and consist of six additional sessions (#2-7) on the topics of:
- Raiders of the third domain
- Phage application in the One Health approach
- Endless virus diversity most beautiful
- Environmental impact of virus-host interactions
- Models for viral action
- Personalised phage therapy
Stephanie Lynch will chair the next Phage Phun session, which will be Thursday Nov 25 at 10AM AEST (Wed Nov 24, 3PM Pacific time). Join us for this informal virtual networking session by registering here. (If you’re already signed up for the PHAVES series or a past Phage Phun, no need to register again; we’ll send you the link closer to the date).
Hany Anany, Antonet Svircev and Eeva Vainio and I (Paul Hyman) are editing a research topic in Frontiers in Microbiology titled “Beyond humans - virus therapy for pathogens of animals and plants” to highlight work with other systems besides human phage therapy. It doesn’t have to be with phages – if a virus is used to treat a pathogen that isn’t infecting a human being, we’re interested in hearing from you. Questions? Please e-mail me at [email protected]
The next Phage Phun is Wed, Nov 24 at 9AM Pacific! Phage Phun: informal, self-serve Zoom breakout rooms, where you can hop between topic-based rooms and meet new phage phriends! At Evergreen we had rooms like ‘Catching up with phriends’, ‘Phage Therapy’, ‘Troubleshooting: bring a problem, get a solution’, ‘Phage in the Phield’ and more. Register here!
Many of us are excited for the upcoming Viruses of Microbes (VoM) 2022, the conference finally taking place this summer in Portugal - after being rescheduled from 2020. In collaboration, the International Society for Viruses of Microorganisms (ISVM), Phage Directory, and the organizers of VoM 2022 are excited to announce Season 2 of iVoM, a series of online lectures from prominent researchers studying viruses of microbes. These events will run monthly from December to June, in the lead-up to the in-person version of VoM, which will still take place July 2022.
The first iVoM2 event will be Dec. 8th at 12:00 PM (noon) CET, under the theme "Control of Viral Action - regulation of viral activity by other viruses and mobile genetic elements*
It will feature talks by:
- Dr. Aude Bernheim, INSERM, France: “Systematic and quantitative view of the antiviral arsenal of prokaryotes”
- Dr. Matthias Fischer, MPI for Medical Research, Germany: “The sleeper within - how endogenous virophages may defend protists against giant viruses”
Chairs:
- Corina Brussaard (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Netherlands)
- Shawna McCallin (Balgrist University Hospital, University of Zürich, Switzerland)
The rest of iVoM Season 2 will start in January and consist of six sessions, on per month, on the topics of:
- Raiders of the third domain
- Phage application in the One Health approach
- Endless virus diversity most beautiful
- Environmental impact of virus-host interactions
- Models for viral action
- Personalised phage therapy
More details (and registration link) coming soon! For now, feel free to check out the presentations from iVoM Season 1, which ran 2020-2021.
Phage Directory’s new structured peer feedback platform, Instill Science, is now live, and the first few requests have been posted and replied to!
Can you help your fellow phage researchers by providing a second set of eyes on their work? If so, check out the active requests. Currently, Marwan M. Saleh, Bharat Jhunjhunwala, Steve Abedon, Stephen Amankwah, Noutin Fernand Michodigni and Jan Zheng are looking for feedback or collaborators, ranging from feedback on a study on phage therapy and a phage book chapter, to help with experiments and tools, to those willing to have a conversation about phage databases.
What does feedback look like? Spend 30 mins reading through and giving your first impressions and overarching thoughts on any given piece of work. Your contributions will be tracked and recognized, and you’ll be helping fellow researchers by sharing your expertise.
Thanks so much to those who have already responded to these requests and are working to provide feedback already: Betty Kutter, Urmi Bajpai, Tobi Nagel, Daniel Schwartz, Katharine Muscat, and Atif Khan! You are all amazing and we are so grateful for your support!
The Ohio State University (OSU) Centre of Microbiome Science in collaboration with European Virus Bioinformatics Center and Emergent Ecosystems Response to Change (EMERGE) have launched an ECR-focused virome series. Nominate speakers in the phage, virus, evolution and ecology field here.
Head to YouTube and check out Bacteriophage in Arabic, a channel with a series of seminars and explanation videos about phage!
For PHAVES #24 next week, veterinarian Dr. Whitney Greene & phage researcher Prof. Julianne Grose will give a talk entitled ‘Phage Researcher & Veterinarian Perspective: Phage therapy to combat a shell infection in a sea turtle’ on November 10 at 3 PM EST! Register here! (If you’re already signed up for the PHAVES series, no need to register again; we’ll send you the link closer to the date).
Check out the phage community question on Twitter by Dr. Sabrina Green (@MotherOfPhage). “This is a long shot maybe but does anyone have any Pseudomonas #phages that use the type IV pilus as a receptor? This is not for me but a collaborator. Thanks phage community!”. If you can help, reply to Sabrina’s Twitter thread.
Conventional homology-based comparative genomic analyses can only do so much in extracting information from databases. We used phages to test our comparative genomics tool (CALANGO) that considers annotation terms besides sequence data. By focusing on E. coli genomes and prophages, we found that pathogenic E. coli have more prophages than non-pathogenic ones, and genes of viral origin are associated to prophages. Genes annotated as virulence factors are also associated to prophage density, but several are not coded by the prophages themselves. We also found genes negatively associated to prophage presence.
Read our preprint here and try the CALANGO package on your organisms of choice. We are looking forward for your findings, feedback and criticism! I (@Gabriel_MFA) am only a non-coding contributor, so please look for the masterminds behind the project for more info: @_fcampelo and @chicao_lobo.
Thank you to everyone who participated in our very first #WorldPhageWeek #scicomm challenge! Overall we had just over 70 individual phage researchers participate, and it was great seeing all the phage posts on Twitter! Thank you again to Dr. Ellie Jameson who kindly agreed to create a custom phage art piece for the winner! We spun a wheel to decide the winner, and the winner is… Karen Adler!!! Congratulations Karen!
Register now for the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference held on November 2-5, by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Register now for the Southeast Asia Virtual Phage Workshop which will be held in March 2022 by the NGO Phages for Global Health. Scientists from lower and middle income ASEAN member states are invited to apply by Nov 6.
Hello, I’m Asher ([email protected])! I’m a high school senior in Los Angeles pursuing a project on phage therapy, and I’ve hit a massive roadblock in trying to order phages. I’m reaching out, hoping someone has info on how I can get them. I’m hoping to examine the efficacy of phage therapy in treating cystic fibrosis in _C. elegans (P. aeruginosa PAO1-GFP). From my prelim lit review, it looks like the following phages as a cocktail show effectiveness: Pseudomonas phages vB_PaeP_PYO2, vB_PaeP_DEV, vB_PaeM_E215, and vB_PaeM_E217. Does anyone have info about how to order one or all of them?
Thank you to everyone that joined us for our October PHAVES, which was a talk by Bjorn Criel on the PhaLP database for phage lytic proteins that their group has developed — watch the recording here!
If you miss any of the PHAVES events you can always watch the recordings on the Phage Directory YouTube.
Happy #WorldPhageWeek everyone! Don’t forget to join in the Phage Week #scicomm challenge on Twitter. Keep an eye out on Twitter each day for a new prompt to answer! A selected winner will receive a custom art piece from Dr. Ellie Jameson. We look forward to seeing your posts!
Phage Directory’s new structured peer feedback platform, Instill Science, is now live, and the first few requests have been posted and replied to!
Can you help your fellow phage researchers by providing a second set of eyes on their work? If so, check out the active requests. Currently, Bharat Jhunjhunwala, Steve Abedon, Stephen Amankwah, Noutin Fernand Michodigni and Jan Zheng are looking for feedback or collaborators, ranging from feedback on a study on phage therapy and a phage book chapter, to help with experiments and tools, to those willing to have a conversation about phage databases.
What does feedback look like? Spend 30 mins reading through and giving your first impressions and overarching thoughts on any given piece of work. Your contributions will be tracked and recognized, and you’ll be helping fellow researchers by sharing your expertise.
Thanks so much to those who have already responded to these requests and are working to provide feedback already: Betty Kutter, Urmi Bajpai, Tobi Nagel, Daniel Schwartz, Katharine Muscat, and Atif Khan! You are all amazing and we are so grateful for your support!
Applications are now open for the Southeast Asia Virtual Phage Workshop which will be hosted in March 2022 by the NGO Phages for Global Health.
Topics and activities will include:
- Learning essential aspects of phage biology
- Exploring experimental techniques for isolating and characterizing phages
- Understanding antibacterial applications of phages in people, animals and crops
- Expanding the international network of phage scientists
Up to 50 scientists will be selected through a competitive application process.
Want to build leadership experience in a fun and low-key setting? If you’d like to chair a future Phage Phun (or PHAVES) event, email [email protected]! We’ll equip you with everything you need to know, and take care of all the tech, invites and getting the word out — you just show up on the day!
Jessica Sacher will chair the next Phage Phun session, which will be Wednesday Oct 27 at 9AM Pacific. Join us for this informal virtual networking session by registering here. (If you’re already signed up for the PHAVES series or a past Phage Phun, no need to register again; we’ll send you the link closer to the date).
Last chance to get your phage bioinformatics manuscript into PHAGE Journal’s special phage AI and informatics issue! If you’re working on AI in phage biology or therapy, or tools for host discovery, prediction, etc, submit your manuscript by Oct 31.
Want inspiration? The newest paper published as part of this special issue is on the INPHARED tool for identifying of biases in the collection of cultured phage genomes by Ryan Cook and colleagues.
Today on the Clubhouse Phage Phridays at 2PM Eastern, Jessica and Jan from Phage Directory will continue last week’s discussion on the State of Phage Survey results; come ask all your questions about what we found about who’s collecting which phages, where in the world, how many, and how they’re characterizing them!
If you missed out on past Phage Phridays on Clubhouse, head on over to YouTube to listen to recordings, like this recent session on phage derived antimicrobials with guest speaker Dr. Rob Lavigne.
Twitter call-out from Barbara Brenner; phages-to-patients: We are looking for experts to draft (inter-)national guidelines on phage therapy for medical doctors and clinics treating all aspects from “who can get it” over “how is it to be applied” to “is it legal” and “who pays”. Cordial invite to join the team.
The Ibadan Bacteriophage Research Team is celebrating World Phage Week 2021 with a webinar series on October 29 (3-5PM West African Time) and Oct 30 (1-4PM West African Time). The theme will be “Assessing the Readiness of the Global Phage Community in Combatting AMR”.
Come hear talks by Prof. Graham Hatfull, Prof. Jesca Nakavuma, Prof. Zuzanna Drulis-Kawa, and Dr. Jessica Sacher. Register at https://ibadanphageresearchteam.org!
Head on over to Twitter to follow Dr. Ellie Jameson for #InkTober2021 where Ellie uploads a new phage drawing, cartoon or animation everyday!
For PHAVES #23 next week (Oct 12 at 9AM CEST), Bjorn Criel, PhD student in Yves Briers’ group, the Laboratory of Applied Biotechnology, at Ghent University, will give a talk on PhaLP: A Database for the Study of Phage Lytic Proteins and Their Evolution. Register here!
To celebrate Phage Week (22-28 October), Phage Directory is holding a Twitter #scicomm challenge! To participate, all you need to do is create Twitter posts that align with the daily prompts (e.g. tag your favourite phage people, tag your favourite phage paper, etc.) using the hashtag #PhageWeek2021 and tagging @phagedirectory & @stephh_lynch. Follow @phagedirectory to see daily prompts!
We’ll amplify your tweets throughout the week and recognize those who answer the most prompts! Keep an eye out for more details to come!
Twitter call-out from Michael Laub; Question for phage tweeps: does EOP stand for ‘efficiency of plating’ or ‘efficiency of plaquing’? I’ve seen both in the literature. Am hoping this one doesn’t stoke emotions comparable to the argument about whether ‘phage’ or ‘phages’ is the plural form.
Congratulations to Dr. Jeremy Barr who was named a 2021 Victorian Tall Poppy Award winner! The Tall Poppy Award was created to recognise Australian intellectual and scientific excellence. Dr. Barr leads a 14-member research group at Monash University and has published pioneering work in the field of phage biology and phage therapy. He is the most cited phage researcher in the country and is an exemplary leader of his field. His work has already saved the life of one patient, and his recent discoveries are likely to soon save many more.
Twitter call out from Ibadan Bacteriophage Research Team:
Would you like to be a part of the #WorldPhageWeek Celebration (coming up in late October 2021) as an organization or a genomic company?
You can do this through the following:
• Sponsored Email Adverts
• Time slots for product presentation
• Advert placements in the new IBRT PHAMILIA Journal
For further enquiries email the Ibadan Bacteriophage Research Team.
Twitter call-out by Steffanie Strathdee, PhD: “If you live in Cambodia & want to participate in a phage hunt to cure superbug infections common in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients, contact me, Dr. Saima Aslam or IPATH at [email protected]. We are looking for samples from Cambodian rice paddies & will pay shipping!”
For our next PHAVES (Tues, Oct 5 at 9AM CEST) we have Bjorn Criel, a PhD student in Yves Briers’ group, who will be talking about PhaLP: a database of Phage Lytic Proteins. Register for this and all upcoming seminars here!
Another feather in the cap for African phage researchers!!
Dr. Jerrold Agbankpe was awarded the Iso Lomso Visiting Scholar Award to collaborate with researchers at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study to develop phages as future antibiotic alternatives. Dr. Agbankpe also won the Postgraduate Fellowship from The World Academy of Sciences to continue his further phage research with colleagues in Pakistan on developing phages against Campylobacter.
Ms. Yayra Audrey Addablah (Universite Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Cote d’Ivoire) won the Ideas Matter Fellowship to support her research developing phages that could be used to kill bacteria in drinking water and on food processing surfaces.
Congratulation to the the award recipients! Read more in the Phages for Global Health newsletter!
Missed out on a PHAVES seminar? You can catch up on all the PHAVES at the Phage Directory Youtube.
Newly added videos:
- Aël Hardy’s PHAVES talk on the inhibition of phage infection by antibiotics
- Dr. Saima Aslam’s PHAVES talk on clinical phage therapy: learning from patients
Dear Phage aficionados,
We are excited to announce the Inaugural Symposium on Bacteriophages and Bacteriophage-derived Technologies to be held on December 10th 2021 in Singapore, jointly organised by Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (NTU), Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) and Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS). We warmly invite you to exchange ideas and discuss recent advances in phage research.
The one-day symposium will feature presentations by local and international bacteriophage experts and aficionados. Speakers include Keynote speaker John Chen (NUS), Niranjan Nagaranjan’s laboratory (A*STAR), Karina Gin’s Laboratory (NUS), Scott Rice’s Laboratory (NTU, SCELSE), Andrea Kwa (SGH, Duke-NUS), Maurice van Steensel (NTU), Navin Kumar Verma (NTU), Wilfried Moreira (NUS), and more. The day will be closed by a group discussion on the future of bacteriophage biology in Singapore. Depending on the level of interest, there will also be selected talks from submitted abstracts and a virtual poster presentation will be held. Registration and abstract submissions are open and we look forward to count you as a participant.
Wilfried Moreira
Question for the phage community via Twitter from Alexander Hynes, Assist. Prof. at McMaster University: “I’ve been seeing more phage characterization papers that “optimize MOI” for higher titres. Why? I don’t see biological insight, and while practical, these never seem to optimize any other parameters. Why is this singled out? What’s the history I’m missing here?”. Head over to the Twitter thread to share your insights!
Greetings, I hope everyone is doing well during these trying times. My name is Jonathan Lalsiamthara, a Post Doc trainee at the Aballay Lab, OHSU, Portland, OR. I am reaching out to the community if anyone will share with us the cystoviruses or dsRNA bacteriophages (eg. phi6, phi8, phi12, phi13, phi2954, phiNN, and phiYY). I am interested in studying host-pathogen interaction using the C. elegans model, and we assure the requested strains will be used for research purposes only and not to be shared with a third party. I will be very grateful if you will reach me at [email protected] to discuss any further details. Thank you and Best Wishes- Jonathan, Portland
The Centre of Microbiome Science (Ohio State University) is organizing a Viromics workshop webinar series (virtual) on October 13-15, 2021. The workshop will cover virus identification and classification tools, and virus databases. See the full agenda and register here.
The next Phage Phun session will be Wednesday September 29 at 3PM Pacific (an Australian friendly time!). Join us for this informal virtual networking session by registering here. (If you’re already signed up for the PHAVES series or a past Phage Phun, no need to register again; we’ll send you the link closer to the date).
For PHAVES #22 next week, Dr. Saima Aslam, Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and the Director of the Solid Organ Transplant Infectious Diseases service, will give talk entitled ‘Clinical phage therapy: Learning from patients’. Register here
African Phage Forum (APF) is hosting the sixth session of their webinar series on September 24 at 7 AM EAT/9 AM PDT. Guest speaker Dr. Ivan Liachko will be presenting his talk on “Culture-Free Assembly and Host-Attribution of Phage Genomes in Metagenomes”. Register for this event or upcoming events here.
Stephanie Lynch will host the next Phage Phun session, which will be Wednesday September 29 at 3PM Pacific (an Australian friendly time!). Join us for this informal virtual networking session by registering here. (If you’re already signed up for the PHAVES series or a past Phage Phun, no need to register again; we’ll send you the link closer to the date).
#Women_in_Bacteriophage will start recruiting social media coordinator volunteers. If you are interested, send an email to: [email protected] or talk to Fatma via Twitter.
African Phage Forum (APF) is hosting the sixth session of their webinar series on September 24 at 7 AM EAT/9 AM PDT. Guest speaker Dr. Ivan Liachko will be presenting his talk on “Culture-Free Assembly and Host-Attribution of Phage Genomes in Metagenomes”. Register for this event or upcoming events here.
Did you miss our special Wednesday edition of Phage Phriday AKA Phage Phwednesdays? No worries! It is now available on YouTube. Check out what’s going on Down Under! Here Adriana Carolina Hernandez interviews Dr. Jon Iredell and other Phage Phriends about the Phage Australia initiative. Check us out normally on Fridays 1 PM Central time, hosted by Adriana Carolina Hernandez, Jean-Paul Pirnay and Sabrina Green. This is part of Phage Club (which now has close to 300 members!!).
We had so much fun with you all at the ‘Phage Phun’ sessions at Evergreen, that we’ve decided to incorporate these at the end of each month for the phage community at large!
Our first ‘Phage Phun’ session will be this coming Wednesday, Aug 25 at 9AM Pacific (sorry Australia — we’ll alternate next month to be at a friendlier time for you!). Sign up here.
Phage Phun: informal, self-serve Zoom breakout rooms, where you can hop between topic-based rooms and meet new phage phriends! At Evergreen we had rooms like ‘Catching up with phriends’, ‘Phage Therapy’, ‘Troubleshooting: bring a problem, get a solution’, ‘Phage in the Phield’ and more.
These will not be recorded; rather, the rooms will be open and you will be welcome to join and bring your coffee (or beer or other beverage!) and chat with others there.
Rebecca Wattam of PATRIC (alongside Ramy Aziz) taught an incredibly helpful phage genome annotation workshop at the Evergreen phage meeting earlier this month. Did you know Rebecca has also created a Coursera course on Bacterial Bioinformatics?
Interested in contributing a blog post about your phage work (or your phage initiative) to C&T? Check out our Guest Writer Guide!
In keeping with our 4x per year draft submission deadline system, our next deadline is approaching!
- For Jan-Mar, submit by Dec 1.
- For Apr-June, submit by Mar 1.
- For July-Sept, submit by June 1.
- For Oct-Dec, submit by Sept 1.
Ricardo Pascal, a bioinformatics engineer in Denmark, is tracking the phage software ecosystem. Feel free to add a link or two to his list!
Dr. Chip Schooley is leading an International Antiviral Society-USA webinar on phage therapy Aug 17 at 10AM. This is designed for clinical decision makers actively involved in HIV care and research, including physicians, physician assistants, nursing professionals, pharmacists. Participants will learn to describe important advancements in phage therapeutics and describe the potential applications of phage therapeutics in clinical practice.
BCM TAILOR Labs created a video that explains how clinicians can apply for expanded access or compassionate-use approval of phage therapy in the US through the FDA.
OnePetri for iOS is now publicly available — accelerating common Petri dish assays with the power of AI! Count hundreds of phage plaques in a matter of seconds and easily perform plaque assay calculations in the palm of your hand. Support for bacterial CFUs & other assays is coming soon.
For more information and to download OnePetri (for free!), visit onepetri.ai! Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions!
— Michael Shamash (McGill University, [email protected])
Thanks to all who came out to hear from Dr. Gina Suh and John Haverty for PHAVES #20 last week! Gina and John graciously shared their combined ‘doctor-patient experience’ with phage therapy — such an enlightening session! Recording now available here!
Want to learn more about phage training? The Phage Phridays Clubhouse team has posted their most recent recording, How to Train a Phage, part 2, which featured Dr. Ville-Petri Friman. Missed part 1? This was a chat with Josh Borin, who shared his new phage training research; catch the recording here!
The Sullivan Lab at OSU has announced that the next OSU Viromics Workshop will be 13-15 October 2021 in Columbus Ohio. Full agenda and application information coming soon!
From the Center for Phage Technology, via Twitter: “Are you interested in attending a potential 1-day workshop and training session on the use of the CPT’s Galaxy-Apollo platform for phage genome annotation? The workshop would likely run in 2022. DM us or email [email protected].”
A new ESCMID Study Group that will deal with phage therapy has been created: the ESCMID Study Group for Non-traditional Antibacterial Therapy (ESGNTA).
ESGNTA aims to explore non-traditional antibacterials including phage and phage-related products for therapy, as well as increase and support the knowledge in phage lysin and other protein research, and understanding carriers and applications optimal for use in clinical settings (ex: gel, nanoparticles, etc.).
You can visit the website of ESGNTA to learn more about its mission, objectives, and bylaws. Any ESCMID member can join (you can become an ESCMID member here) — please spread the word!
Many thanks to the ESGNTA inauguration committee: Prof. Ran Nir-Paz, Prof. Tristan Ferry, Dr. Patrick Soentjens, Prof. Zuzanna Drulis-Kawa, and Prof. Joana Azeredo, whose hard work resulted in the ESGNTA being created and accepted into ESCMID!
Phage Phridays on Clubhouse released this recording of last week’s conversation with Josh Borin from the Meyer lab at UCSD, wherein they discuss his PNAS paper titled “Coevolutionary phage training leads to greater bacterial suppression and delays the evolution of phage resistance”.
Join Phage Phridays, hosted every Friday by Sabrina Green, Adriana Carolina Hernandez, and Jean-Paul Pirnay in the ‘Phage Club’ within the Clubhouse app!
You can now watch the recording of PHAVES #19: Phage therapy for difficult-to-treat infections in children, with Dr. Ameneh Khatami here on the Phage Directory YouTube channel — PHAVES playlist. Thanks to everyone who came out for this event!
ASM Microbe 2022 will be held on June 9-13, 2022 in Washington, DC. This is the biggest microbiology conference in the world, and we strongly believe that there should be a session dedicated to phage therapy, which we would like to propose to ASM. The deadline for Session Proposal submissions is August 5th, 2021.
We would therefore like your urgent feedback by July 29th, 2021, to help us prepare the proposal. Please let us know if you are aware of anyone else proposing a phage session. We need suggestions for speakers, topics or any other ideas that could help with the application and the session. We would also like to hear from anyone interested in helping to organize the session.
We’ve set up an online form for your input here. We welcome and appreciate all suggestions and offers of assistance!
Feel free to email Ben Burrowes about further questions/more info: [email protected]
Africa Phage Forum #5 will be a talk entitled ‘Shaping P. aeruginosa phages by genome engineering’ by Diana Priscila Pires, PhD, postdoc researcher at CEB - Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
Join us Friday, July 30, 2021 4pm GMT+1 / 6pm EAT. Register at https://apf.phage.directory!
Note: date/time change!
For PHAVES #20 next week, Dr. Gina Suh, MD (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN) and John Haverty will present a doctor-patient experience with phage therapy on July 22 at 2:30 PM Eastern! Gina treated John’s leg with phages, which led him to avoid amputation. Hear about their experience and ask them all your questions!
ModelMEMS (Modelling Microbial Ecology at Multiple Scales) is hosting its second tutorial (virtually) Aug 17th (3-6 pm): “Exploring bacterial and phage interactions with dynamical models”
Hilje Doekes will give the next tutorial in August, this time about modeling phage/bacterial dynamics. Hilje is an expert in eco-evolutionary dynamical systems modeling and has been interested in understanding the dynamics governing the lysis/lysogenic decisions of phages. She recently published a beautiful paper about modeling a viral small-molecule communication system that governs the switch between lytic and lysogenic modes of a phage.
Hilje will cover the broader question of how to model phage-bacterial interactions and how to use these models to gain insights into the detailed ecological and evolutionary dynamics that are governed by phages. She will first give a historical and current overview of previous models(e.g. and). Next, she’ll talk about her own work and finalize the tutorial with a practical hands-on tour of her model.
The Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phage Meeting will be held virtually on August 2, 2021. Register for free here. The conference is calling for the submission of oral and poster abstract submissions (schedule to be announced soon).
The Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (Kids Research) is excited to present the 4th webinar in their Advanced Therapeutics webinar series, “When a Virus is the Cure – phage therapy & mini lungs”, which will focus on phage therapy and airway organoids.
When: Jul 23, 2021, 2:00 PM in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
Phage therapy offers an exciting new treatment option to target difficult-to-treat infections, including infections in patients with cystic fibrosis. Airway organoids created from individual patients’ stem cells provide a model for that individual’s disease. They can be used for disease modelling and personalised medicine.
Hear from two leading experts in paediatric infectious diseases and stem cell biology, who are investigating novel therapeutic options for patients with cystic fibrosis and other difficult-to-treat infections. Speakers will discuss:
• Phage therapy – what is it and how are we using it to help patients at Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network?
• Airway organoids - what are they and how do we use them in conditions such as Cystic Fibrosis?
Call any and all US phage researchers. Does anyone have 500ml Nalgene Polycarbonate centrifuge bottles (3122-0500 or 3140-0500 from Thermo). They are needed for an emergency phage treatment. Contact James Gurney if you can help; and/or please share this tweet!
Recent updates to C&T guest writing process!
Thanks to our super engaged community of phage enthusiasts (all of you!) we are outgrowing our old ways of getting each Capsid & Tail feature ready the week or two before it comes out. So we’re updating how we handle guest blog submissions!
We will now be accepting blog submissions on a quarterly basis; so keep an eye on these four deadlines throughout the year if you’re thinking of contributing:
- For consideration for publication between Oct-Dec, send us your finished draft by Sept 1.
- For Jan-Mar, send us your draft by Dec 1.
- For Apr-June, send us your draft by Mar 1.
- For July-Sept, send us your draft by June 1.
Submissions will be published in an approximately first-come, first-served basis, depending on any editing / back-and-forth that may be required.
Interested in contributing a blog post about your phage work (or your phage initiative) to C&T? Check out our Guest Writer Guide!
If you have feedback about our process, or what we publish (or should publish more of!), please email [email protected] — we’d love to hear from you!
Thanks to Stephanie Lynch for her help in rethinking our system, and for her help coordinating C&T submissions from here on out!
Society for Bacteriophage Research and Therapy, India is organizing the 2nd International Conference on Bacteriophage Research on July 22-24, 2021. The aim of this conference is to bring researchers, professors, and university students from both academia and industry together to share new knowledge and foster and strengthen collaboration.
Call for Abstracts:
SBRT invites the submission of papers, presentations, and posters for the conference. The selected abstract/paper will be published in the International Journal of Bacteriophage Research for free.
Call for awards:
- Lifetime achievement awards in the field of bacteriophage
- Young scientist awards in the field of bacteriophage under different fields (≤50 Years)
- Outstanding scientist awards
- Best oral presentation awards
- Best poster presentation awards
PHAVES #19 will be a seminar by Dr. Ameneh Khatami, who is a senior lecturer in Child and Adolescent Health for the University of Sydney, based at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, where she also works as a paediatric infectious diseases physician.
Ameneh’s talk is entitled ‘Phage therapy for difficult-to-treat infections in children’, and will take place July 1, 9 AM Sydney time (June 30, 4 PM Pacific Time).
Small group networking to follow! Register here for this event or future PHAVES events!
This is Hala Ali, a postdoctoral researcher at Bacteriology Department, Animal Health Research Institute, Egypt. I am looking for sponsor lab to host me for 6 or 9 months as a postdoc scholar funded by Egypt. I am interested in developing novel phage-antibiotics strategy for combating MDR-S. aureus mastitis. Please email me at [email protected] if you know of any opportunities or may be willing to host me.
Dear current & future members of ISVM (International Society for Viruses of Microorganisms)
Please take 4 min to fill out this survey to keep your membership active or to join our society. Stay up-to-date with exciting events that await the Viruses of Microbes community! And don’t forget, basic membership is free!
Evergreen is coming and we are all-in!
Sign up here to be part of the longest running phage meeting.
Phagebiotics Research Foundation and Phage Directory present the 24th biennial Evergreen International Phage Meeting August 2-5th 2021. This year you can participate in person or virtually. The meeting will include primary session talks, live and virtual poster sessions, daily flash talks and Q&A for all participants.
Please submit abstracts by July 2nd if you would like to be considered for oral presentations.
We would love to see your posters! Please submit by July 16th.
As always, we look forward to hearing about all the exciting phage work going on worldwide!
My advisor is looking for a student who’s interested in phage biology to study with him for Master’s degree at University of Florida, college of veterinary medicine. He has tuition fee and expenses for the student. If anyone knows a undergraduate student who’s seeking the degree, please contact Dr. Tuanyok, [email protected]
Some of you may recall that, last year, I put out a call to contribute to a special issue of Pharmaceuticals on “Bacteriophages as Therapeutic Delivery Vehicles.”
We have 10 articles published or near completion already but there’s room for more. We’ve had the submission deadline extended to July 30th.
If you are doing any work or want to review work using phages that have been modified in some way to improve or create new therapies, your work will fit here. We have articles on phage encapsulation to improve delivery, phage use in cancer therapeutics, and luminescent reporter phages among others already so the topic is pretty broad.
More information about the issue is here or you can contact me, Paul Hyman ([email protected]) or Tina Schneider ([email protected]) or Bryan Gibb ([email protected]). I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
PHAVES #18 will be a seminar by Rob McBride, co-founder of Felix Biotechnology, on Tues, June 8, 5PM Pacific time. Rob will give a talk on ‘Using machine learning to design phages with enhanced therapeutic features’. Small group networking to follow! Register here for this event or future PHAVES events!
PhageSuisse will host its third webinar on June 1st at 19h00, entitled “phageSuisse meets industry” with Dr. Frenk Smrekar from JAFRAL and Dr. Lorenzo Corsini from PhagoMed.
The International Virus Bioinformatics Meeting 2022 (ViBioM 2022) will be held in Valencia, Spain, 24–25 March 2022. The meeting (currently planned to be in-person) is jointly organized by the European Virus Bioinformatics Center (EVBC), the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA-CSIC), and the University of Valencia. Registration is free of charge, works on a first-come, first-serve basis and is open for 120 participants.
The Australian Society for Microbiology annual conference is approaching fast — next week to be exact! (May 31-June 3). Excitingly, the program features lots of phage talks! This is a hybrid event, and will run both in-person and online. Register here.
The African Phage Forum (APF) hosted its third and fourth events in April and May — thanks to all those who attended!
APF 3: Dr. Jesca Nakavuma, Veterinarian, Senior Lecturer, Microbiologist, and Former Deputy Principal of the College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity at Makerere University, Uganda, East Africa (Recording here)
APF 4: Dr. Arshnee Moodley, who leads the CGIAR AMR Hub, Kenya, gave a talk entitled ‘Challenges of using phages in the veterinary world: My learning curve’. (Recording here)
The Phage Virus Assembly conference (#PVA2021) will take place online July 27–30, 14:00–18:00 (BST, GMT+1:00). Register for the conference here. Submit your abstracts by May 31!
The African Phage Forum (APF) will host its fourth event next week, May 26 at 6-8PM East Africa Time (8-10AM Pacific time). The guest speaker will be Dr. Arshnee Moodley, who will give a talk entitled ‘Challenges of using phages in the veterinary world: My learning curve’.
Dr. Moodley leads the CGIAR AMR Hub, Kenya, that was launched in 2019, with the aim to support efforts to mitigate the risks of agricultural associated antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in low- and middle- income countries working within a One Health framework. She is a microbiologist with a PhD in antimicrobial resistance and zoonosis from the University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark.
Learn more, sign up for her talk, and subscribe for future APF seminars here.
We warmly invite you to attend our 11th annual international bacteriophage conference “Phages 2021” – the longest running phage conferences series in Europe - which will be held virtually, via Zoom or equivalent, on 07th-08th September 2021. The conference will include oral presentations by established phage scientists, emerging researchers in an Early Career Researchers (ECR) symposium as a part of the main agenda, as well as flash talks by poster presenters (see confirmed speakers).
Up to 30% early registration discount available until 28th June 2021. Fees for students start at as low as £50.
Check out this podcast interview with Felix Biotech co-founder and CEO, Rob McBride, who talks about how phage can be used to combat urgent microbial challenges in human health and beyond!
Thanks so much to everyone who attended PHAVES #16 this week! Here’s the recording!
Dr. Greg Canfield and Dr. Laura Damioli from the CU Anschutz and CU Denver gave a fantastic joint talk entitled: Freedom from antibiotic purgatory?: Salvage phage therapy for cure of spinal hardware infection.
Watch this and other past PHAVES recordings on the Phage Directory YouTube channel here.
Has anyone in the community used/heard of an automated system that does plaque identification, picking, and subculturing? Please email [email protected] with suggestions/links — thanks!
My name is Gábor Apjok, a PhD student from the Biological Research Centre of Szeged, Hungary. Recently, our hospitals in Hungary have detected multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, which we have started to collect. We are familiar with isolating phages from the environment, however, we have failed to do so in case of Acinetobacter phages. We investigated hospital sewage from various sources, river sediment, soil, to no avail. Next, we will check samples directly from patients (e.g. fecal samples, swabs etc.), however it takes time to get permission to handle samples of the sort. Because of the above reasons, we thought it would be best to seek help from the phage community. We are seeking Acinetobacter phages (and their cognate hosts to maintain phages) and would appreciate any help you can provide. Please contact me at: [email protected].
Tiffany Luong (San Diego State University) and colleagues have published a paper called ‘Can Viruses Save Lives?’ in the Biomedical Science Journal for Teens that describes their analysis of clinical phage therapy reports published in recent years. This involved adapting their original paper into a digestible version geared toward kids and teens — what a cool initiative! Original paper | Teen version.
We hosted Dr. Justin Clark (phage bioinformatician at BCM Tailor Labs) in our recent phage bioinformatics series (co-hosted with IBRC), and many of you have been excitedly waiting for the recording! While unforeseen factors prevented us from sharing the original, here’s a re-recorded adaptation: ‘Phage On Trial—Bioinformatic analysis of therapeutic phages’. In this video, Justin goes through the basic bioinformatic analysis he performs in order to determine whether phages are suitable for phage therapy.
P.S. Join our #phage-bioinformatics Slack channel to discuss the video & get the community’s help with your phage bioinformatics projects!
The 27th annual Boston Bacterial Meeting is going to be held on June 10-11, 2021 organized by a diverse group of students and post-docs from several institutions. It has talks on Antibiotic Resistance (chaired by John Dekker, National Institutes of Health) and Phage and Gene Transfer (chaired by Alexander Meeske, Washington University), followed by breakout sessions and including a mentorship exchange program. Register by June 4!
From @PaulJaschke on Twitter: “I’m looking for images of petri dishes with M13 #phage on them. Can anybody help me out? We’re trying to test Plaque Size Tool on turbid plaques and (surprisingly) cannot find any on the internet! Thanks!”
The World Microbe Forum 2021 (June 20-24, online; an ASM and FEMS collaboration) this year will include a session on viruses of microbes convened by Madalena Pimental and Rob Lavigne, on behalf of the Viruses of Microbes 2020 team and ISVM, the International Society for Viruses of Microorganisms (become a member for free here: http://isvm.org).
The session will be on June 23, and is entitled ‘What’s New in the World of Viruses of Microbes?’ This symposium focuses on recent advances in the fundamental biology and utility of the viruses of microorganisms, archaeal viruses, bacteriophages (or phages, the viruses of bacteria) and the viruses of microbial eukaryotes. This session provides the opportunity for young researchers to present their work.
Register/submit an abstract now—early registration ends May 11; abstracts due by May 7.
Next week on Clubhouse Phage Phridays (audio-only, casual drop-in discussions), our guest will be Dominic Sauvageau from the University of Alberta, who will chat with us about the ‘phage virulence index’ his lab has developed to quantify phage infectivity (check out their paper here). When: May 7 at 1PM Central time. Welcome one and all!
Follow Phage Club within the Clubhouse app to find the event!
We cordially invite you to participate in the 2nd German Phage Symposium, which will take place Sept 13-14, 2021 at the University of Hohenheim, and will include keynote speakers Prof. Anat Herskovits, Prof. Ian J. Molineux and Prof. Dr. John Chen.
For early career scientists, a “Young Scientists Poster Prize” will be awarded, and the winners have the chance to present their research on September 14.
Register here by June 15. Please note, the number of participants is limited to 100, because the Symposium is planned as a face-to-face event. If this option will not be possible due to the pandemic, we will switch to an online format.
Dear fellow virologists,
Welcome to the first conference of the World Society for Virology (WSV), which is a global non-profit organization established in 2017, to connect virologists around the world, with no restrictions or boundaries, and without membership fees. We have 40 eminent Keynote speakers, and already several interesting abstracts submitted, covering COVID-19 the first day, and all other fields of virology, including plant, animal, fungal, human and microbe viruses, such as phages and phage therapy, the next 2 days. Please see program for details on the two phage keynote talks!
Please join us in June 16-18. 2021! All sessions are recorded for prime time viewing in all time zones!
Abstract submission and early bird registration deadline: April 30th!
Welcome!
— Yigang Tong, PhD, Professor, Dean, College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China
Hello everyone! My name is Melissa and I am a 3rd year grad student in the Biology department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham researching the mechanics of phage evolution. I am seeking obligately lytic phages that target Pseudomonas (preferably aeruginosa), E. coli or S. aureus for use in my evolutionary studies. Host bacterial strains for strain specific phage would also be appreciated.
I would also like to connect with researchers who have experience in culturing and infecting Pseudomonas. There are some quizzical results that I would love to discuss!
You can contact me at [email protected]. I appreciate all your help. Hope you have a wonderful day! Warmest Regards, Melissa
Today, like all Fridays these days, it’s ‘Phage Phridays’ in the ‘Phage Club’ on Clubhouse!.
Time: 4PM Central (new time this week!)
Theme: CRISPR and anti-CRISPR!
Special guest: Joe Bondy-Denomy
Hosts: Adriana Carolina Hernandez, Sabrina Green, Jean-Paul Pirnay
Clubhouse events are casual audio-only drop-in chats; come for a few mins or stay the whole hour! Also, the new update means Clubhouse now supports Android too, not just iPhone!
If you want to host your own room within Phage Club on Clubhouse, or suggest a theme or guest, we can make that happen! Let Jessica or Jan know if you’re interested.
The Africa Phage Forum is hosting its next phage webinar in its series, April 23 at 4pm GMT with special guest Dr. Jesca Nakavuma (Veterinarian and Senior Lecturer at Makerere University, Uganda), who will give a talk entitled Practical challenges and possible solutions in phage research — a question and answer session.
Register now for this event and/or the whole series at https://apf.phage.directory.
Check out this YouTube explainer video by Dr. Sabrina Green, R&D Director at BCM Tailor Labs, entitled ‘Developing an Expedited Pipeline to Develop Phage Therapy for Multidrug-Resistant Infections’. Subscribe to their channel here for lots more where this came from!
Thanks to everyone who attended one or both of the PHAVES events we hosted this week! We heard Dr. Clara Torres-Barceló talk about phages for plant pathogens (recording here!), and Dr. Randy Fish talk about phages for diabetic foot infections (recording to be shared soon!).
Thanks also to those who attended our IBRC/Phage Directory bioinformatics seminars over the last few weeks, with Dr. Justin Clark, who told us about TAILOR’s pipeline for assessing safety of therapeutic phages (recording not available at this time), and with Dr. Jason Gill, who told us all about using the Center for Phage Technology’s instance of Galaxy to annotate phage genomes easily (recording here!).
Whenever we can, we publish recordings of our events on our YouTube channel here — subscribe to get notified here: https://phage.directory/youtube!
Felix Biotechnology is gearing up to submit a phage emoji to the unicode consortium! Vote on your favourite design here!
We are excited to announce that we are holding a forum on Phage Therapy in the United Kingdom on the 22nd of April, 2pm-6pm BST.
This event will be focussed on planning the pathway to phage therapy in UK, starting with testing phage therapy for bacterial UTIs resistant to antibiotics, and developing the next steps for regulations and clinical trials.
Key speakers include Dr. David Jenkins from the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, Prof. Krystyna Dąbrowska from the Polish Academy of Sciences, and more, discussing AMR, regulations, and previous experience with treatment.
UCSD’s phage therapy center, IPATH, released its latest quarterly newsletter! It features an interview with David Pride, with questions like ‘what is a phage library’, ‘how could a phage library benefit patients’, and more! It also features an interview with Roland Liu, a postdoctoral researcher in the Pride lab, which talks about what brought him to IPATH and what he’s working on now.
Phage Club on Clubhouse (a new audio-only chat app) is back next week on Wednesday night (9PM Eastern).
Also, Sabrina Green and Adriana Carolina Hernandez Morales have been hosting Phage Club rooms on Fridays (Phage Phridays!) at 1PM Central! (Today featured special guest Evelien Adriaenssens!)
These are casual, fun chats that dig into new topics each week. They’re designed to be drop-in, and are well suited for those who just want to listen in. Jump in for 10 mins or stay the whole hour!
Email [email protected] if you need an invite to Clubhouse! (Currently only for iPhone).
We’re excited to announce that we’re starting a new stream of PHAVES, running parallel to our researcher-focused series. The new series will focus on phage therapy in the clinic. We’ll be featuring clinicians who have treated patients with phages, but will also bring in patients and beyond. The goal is to facilitate knowledge exchange between those using phages and those interested in learning more.
To start us off, join us April 14 at 3pm Pacific time for an interview with Dr. Randy Fish (DPM, Podiatrist in chronic wound healing and clinical research using bacteriophage in diabetic foot infections, Tacoma Diabetic Foot Clinic and PhageBiotics Research Foundation).
At this event, Jessica will interview Randy about his work and vision when it comes to using phages to treat diabetic foot infections. We’ll discuss Randy’s goals to look at topical or localized use of phage to avoid the use of antibiotics, his vision on using phage to catch infections early, and his interest in testing how much and how often phage should be applied for optimal results. Small group networking to follow! Register here!
Join us April 13 at 4PM CEST for PHAVES #14, which will be a seminar with Dr. Clara Torres-Barceló (Plant Pathology Unit, INRAE, Avignon, France) entitled: “Jack of all strains, master of none? Host range and efficacy in phages of a phytopathogenic bacterium”. Small group networking to follow! Register here!
PHAVES #16 will be May 12 at 2PM Mountain time. Dr. Greg Canfield and Dr. Laura Damioli from the University of Colorado will give a joint talk entitled: Freedom from antibiotic purgatory?: Salvage phage therapy for cure of spinal hardware infection.
Sign up for this event and future ones at https://seminars.phage.directory/!
Missed last week’s Phage Phriday on Clubhouse? Here’s the recording of the Q&A with Dr. Steffanie Strathdee, author of “The Perfect Predator”.
Want more Clubhouse? Get the app (iphone only) and follow Phage Club — currently running weekly events Wednesday nights at 9PM Eastern and Friday afternoons at 1PM Central.
Phage Club on Clubhouse is back next week on Wednesday night (9PM Eastern). The theme will be ‘Therapeutic Phage on Trial: Burden of Proof in Genomic Analysis’, which will be an ‘after party’ after Justin Clark’s seminar on Tuesday March 30!
Also, Sabrina Green and Adriana Carolina Hernandez Morales have been hosting Phage Club rooms on Fridays at 1PM Central! Today featured special guest Steffanie Strathdee!
And thanks for everyone who came out this past Wednesday, where we talked with Dr. Gina Suh from Mayo Clinic about how she finds phages for her patients. We’ve recorded it if anyone is interested!
Email [email protected] if you need an invite to Clubhouse! (Currently only for iPhone).
Greetings to all senior phage scientists. I am currently conducting phage research and seeking your collaboration in order to characterize the isolated phages using TEM. Kindly assist me to achieve this task by highlighting your requirements for TEM services including pricings. I am Noutin Fernand Michodigni, PhD Student in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Pan African University, [email protected].
Check out this Twitter Q&A thread started by Paul Jaschke: “Anybody know of a source where cost of production ($/pfu) has been calculated for GMP or similar phage preps? #phagetherapy #bacteriophage #gmp”.
Graham Hatfull and Steffanie Strathdee are seeking information about nebulizers that have been tested in phage therapy. See Steffanie’s tweet thread here and get in touch with her or Graham if you’d like to help. “#Phage tweeps: @GHatfull & @IPATH are looking for a list of performance for nebulizers used for #phagetherapy. i.e. which ones have/have not been used, methods for each, phage survival after nebulization & what clinical outcomes exist. (This would make a great paper too!)”
Acknowledging the importance of genomic characterization of phages to understand their biology and for their safe use in therapeutics and other applications, International Bacteriophage Research Consortium (IBRC) and Phage Directory, USA are co-hosting a series of Phage Bioinformatics Webinars.
Our next guest is Dr. Justin Clark, Lead Data Scientist and Co-founder of TAILΦR, a Baylor College of Medicine bacteriophage initiative. Originally trained as a wet-lab molecular biologist, Justin has studied a variety of pathogenic bacteria over the last decade at both the bench and the computer. His current research focuses on both therapeutic phage uses and comparative genomics of ESKAPE pathogens.
We are very pleased to invite you to the webinar on 30 March, 2021 at 8.30 pm Indian Standard Time (IST) / 10.00 am CST. We look forward to your participation. Register using the link.
Check out our new Bioinformatics resources page here, where we’re posting materials on talks in this series. More to be added as we go! Also check out our Slack page (#phage-bioinformatics channel) to converse with others attending the sessions and working through their phage bioinformatics projects!
As mentioned in this month’s Quick Dive on phage and diabetic foot infections, Phage Directory is excited to be putting together a new series of talks (ideally the beginning of a working group) on clinical use of phage, starting with diabetic foot infections. Thanks to all who have emailed so far and expressed your interest!
Anyone interested in giving a talk, or taking part in a panel discussion, please email me at [email protected]! Also, I’m also keen to hear from those who have treated patients with phages in settings beyond diabetic foot as well.
To get updates when we launch the series, subscribe to PHAVES here!
Watch past events we’ve hosted on YouTube here.
Phage Directory (& friends) are now on Clubhouse! This is a new app for drop-in audio-only discussions around a topic. It’s still only for iPhone users, and requires an invite, so ask around (or ask us!) if you need one. We’ve now hosted two Wednesday night events (9PM Eastern) and will host another this coming Wed, March 24 at the same time. The topic will be on navigating phage therapy in the US via the FDA eIND pathway, along with what to say when approached by a prospective patient for phage therapy. Sign up for “Phage Club” within clubhouse to get notified about future events!
Sandro Sulakvelidze, CEO of Intralytix, talks phages for food poisoning in this podcast episode by Gastropod entitled ‘Phage against the machine’. Gastropod looks at food through the lens of science and history.
Rafal Mostowy (Jagielloński University, Poland) asked for a list of top 10 phage-related articles, which can be used as a part of an introductory course to new students working on phages. Comment with your list of papers on Twitter!
The Oxford Bacteriophage Conference — Phages 2021 will be held (most likely) virtually Sept 7-8, 2021. The conference will showcase phage research and applications in medicine, food, and biotechnology. The conference is chaired by Prof Martha RJ Clokie. Register here.
PHAGE: Therapy, Applications, and Research journal is currently seeking manuscripts for a special issue with a dedicated focus on Phage Informatics and AI. The special issue will focus on all aspects of computational analysis and application including bioinformatics, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and biostatistics. Submission deadline: August 31, 2021
Fatma Abdelrahman (Zewail City of Science and Technology, Egypt) has launched a new webpage for Women in Phage in collaboration with Phage Directory. The new organization aspires to create a community where all phage scientists — and particularly female scientists — can gather to share their research experience and discuss their findings. It will also support microbiology undergraduate students with an avid interest in the field by connecting them with researchers and professors from all over the globe through bi-yearly conferences and regular webinars. Become a member!
Last chance to register for the 3rd Bacteriophage Therapy Summit, March 23-25! Accelerate the discovery and translation of bacteriophage research into targeted therapeutics that demonstrate clinical efficacy with expert speakers from FDA, BiomX, Cytophage, and Eligo Bioscience. Registration closes at midnight, March 22. Use code PD10 for 10% off!
PHAVES #13 will be a seminar with Prof. Jonathan Iredell, MBBS, PhD of the Westmead Institute for Medical Research and University of Sydney on Wed, March 10 at 8AM AEDT (Tues, March 9 at 4PM Eastern Time/10PM CET). He will give a talk entitled Phage Therapy: The Australian Experience. Small group networking to follow! Register here!
Later this month, leading drug developers, academics and clinical researchers will come together at the 3rd Bacteriophage Therapy Summit to address their translation challenges, from characterization of phages through to clinical development. Join them online to strengthen your product development pipelines and forge new collaborations to unlock the full potential of bacteriophage therapeutics. Use code PD10 to get 10% off!
We are in search for Pseudomonas aeruginosa phage PaP3, it was described by Fuquan Hu’s lab but myself and Prof. Gino Cingolani haven’t received a reply from them. Hope you can help us find this prophage or a similar one to this and LUZ24 (we required a temperate phage). Thank you! Contact details: [email protected].
The Texas Medical Center (TMC) Digestive Diseases Center 12th Frontiers in Digestive Diseases Symposium “Phages, Viruses, and Digestive Diseases” will take place Saturday, March 6, 2021, 8 am CST – 1:45 pm CST. Event Organizers: Mary K. Estes, Ph.D. and Anthony Maresso, Ph.D. Register here.
The NIH Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS) is hosting Prof. Paul Turner on Wednesday, March 10 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm, who will give a webinar entitled “Phage Therapy to Combat Infections by Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria”. Watch at https://videocast.nih.gov.
The Centre for Microbiology and Phage Therapy (Zewail City of Science, Technology and Innovation) is organizing their first Annual Phage International Conference on March 12-13, 2021. Register here (conference already in progress!).
The International Bacteriophage Research Consortium (IBRC) and Phage Directory are co-hosting a series of Phage Bioinformatics Webinars.
The second speaker in the series will be March 2 at 9.00 pm IST / 7.30 am PST, with a talk by Katelyn McNair, a Research Scholar at the University of California, Irvine and San Diego State University, USA. Katelyn has developed the software PHANOTATE, the first gene finder specifically designed for phage genome annotation. Also, of immense interest to phage researchers, is her previous tool, PHACTS, which computationally predicts whether a phage is temperate or virulent. Register here!
Also check out our #phage-bioinformatics channel in the Phage Directory Slack room, to give & get help as you work through this series & beyond!
Good things….
come to those who wait. It is now evident that corona will continue to disrupt our plans to share science and meet at VoM Portugal yet again this year. The local organizers of the upcoming VoM conferences and the ISVM board have made the decision to move the original 2020 VoM in Guimarães, Portugal to 2022 and the originally scheduled 2022 meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia to 2023.
Furthermore, we’re excited to announce that ISVM/VoM is going ‘down under’ in 2024, with a conference hosted in beautiful Cairns, Australia. We look forward to ‘Expanding our viral frontiers’ at that meeting.
So, besides the iVoM lectures and other online opportunities being made available to us this year, we’ll be ready for fully vaccinated conferences:
18th – 22nd July 2022, Guimarães, Portugal
2nd – 7th July 2023, Tbilisi, Georgia
15th – 19th July 2024, Cairns, Australia
We look forward to seeing you again!
On behalf of the ISVM executive board,
Rob Lavigne (president)
We are excited to announce that the Viruses of Microbes 2024 meeting will be held in Cairns, Australia! Being situated on the shores of the Great Barrier Reef and surrounded by the oldest rainforest on Earth, Cairns will host a truly unique VoM experience. This also marks the first time that the VoM conference series will take place outside of Europe.
The theme for VoM 2024 will be ‘Expanding our viral frontiers’, which references both the expansion of the VoM conference series to Australia and a focus on the next frontiers for viruses of microbes research. Our local organising committee is led by Dr. Jeremy J. Barr (Monash University) and includes; A/Prof. Ruby CY Lin (Westmead Institute), Dr. Lucy Furfaro (University of Western Australia), Dr. Karen Weynberg (The University of Queensland), and Dr. Paul Jaschke (Macquarie University).
Our meeting will be held at the Cairns Convention Centre from July 15th – 19th, 2024. We are excited to host you all in beautiful Cairns, Australia and hope to see you all ‘down under’ soon!
The 3rd Bacteriophage Therapy Summit is taking place virtually on March 23-25. With expert speakers from the FDA, BiomX, Cytophage, Loughborough University and Eligo Bioscience, join us online to progress fundamental bacteriophage research into clinically-significant products and overcome the global antibiotic resistance crisis.
Prof. Mansel Griffiths (University of Guelph) and Dr. Hany Anany (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Guelph Research and Development Center) are editing a special issue of Viruses entitled “Bacteriophages in Food Applications”.
Call for papers for our special issue topic in Microorganisms, “Bacteriophages-Based Technologies for a One Health Society: Applications in Clinical, Veterinary, and Industrial Settings”. Guest editors: Dr. Karen D. Weynberg, Dr. Sabrina Green.
Registration is open for (online) VEGA, Viral EcoGenomics & Applications, 2021. Hosted by the JGI, the goal of this series of online seminars is to bring together a “Viral Ecogenomics” community to foster discussion on how to best capture and characterize uncultivated viruses, understand the role of viruses in natural ecosystems, and functionally explore viral genetic diversity toward innovative biotechnological and industrial applications. This will be a series that runs through April and May.
Phage/Virus Assembly 2021 will take place online July 27-30. Register here!
[Date change!] The sixth iVoM event will be Thursday, Mar 4, 11AM GMT (note earlier time than usual too!), and the theme will be “Biotechnology applications in health care”.
It will feature talks by:
Laurent Debarbieux: Phages (in)action in the gut
Krystyna Dabrowska: A study that went wrong: phage engineering and phage pharmacokinetics
Tristan Ferry: Phage therapy experience in France in the field of Bone and Joint infection
Chairs:
Jeremy Barr
Joana Azeredo
Register at https://ivom.phage.directory.
Also, the iVoM image contest deadline has been extended to March 2!
Listen to soil phage ecologist Gary Trubl talk soil microbes and viral ecology on the Storytellers of STEMM podcast!
Viruses has an upcoming Special Issue on ‘State-of-the-Art Phage Therapy Development in Europe’. They are looking for research articles, review articles and short communications related to: experimental and applied phage therapy; host–pathogen interactions and co-evolution; phage therapy in animal models; principle for selection and construction of bacteriophages for therapy; immune response to phage therapy; case studies; clinical trials. The deadline is the 31st of July 2021.
Analysis of phage genomes replete with hypothetical genes is a challenge. Given the importance of genomic characterization of phages to understand their biology and for their safe use, International Bacteriophage Research Consortium (IBRC) and Phage Directory are co-hosting a series of Phage Bioinformatics Webinars. This will be a beginner-focused series aimed at helping phage researchers get up to speed on phage genome characterization, including current practices, tools and tips, and will be taught by invited guest speakers.
The first webinar will be by Dr. Deborah Jacobs-Sera from the Hatfull Lab (University of Pittsburgh, USA), developer and overseer of phage discovery and genomics platforms for advancing science education, such as PHIRE and SEA-PHAGES. She’ll give a talk on “Genomic Annotation and Comparative Bioinformatic Analysis of Actinobacteriophages”, and will include an overview of tools such as DNA Master, GeneMark, Glimmer, tRNA Scan SE, Aragorn, HHPred.
We’re pleased to invite you to this series, beginning on 16 February, 2021 at 6.30 pm IST/8 am EST. Register for the first event here.
As a companion to this series, we’ve just launched a Slack channel called #phage-bioinformatics within the Phage Directory Slack (join here!), where you can share your questions and work through issues together with the community.
Phage enthusiasts need to take a 3-min break and watch this awesome student-made video breaking down phage lysogeny and the ‘Piggyback the winner’ hypothesis, set to the tune of a Justin Timberlake song… (no sound until around 0:26; then the music starts). Source: Ben Temperton’s BIO3099 class (University of Exeter).
The sixth iVoM event will be Thursday, February 18, 11AM GMT (note time change!), and the theme will be “Biotechnology applications in health care”. It will feature talks by:
Laurent Debarbieux: Phages (in)action in the gut
Krystyna Dabrowska: A study that went wrong: phage engineering and phage pharmacokinetics
Tristan Ferry: Phage therapy experience in France in the field of Bone and Joint infection
Chairs:
Jeremy Barr
Joana Azeredo
Register at https://ivom.phage.directory.
Dear iVoM participants,
If you’ve attended at least two iVoM events, you’re invited to participate in a contest! The contest aims at having the audience feedback regarding the iVoM: Viruses of Microbes 2020 Webinar Series: Take a walk on the VoM side and expectations for the next Viruses of Microbes - the latest conquests on viruses of microbes conference. This must be done in a concise, clear, creative and attractive way, through the presentation of an image.
The winner will have the image published in the abstract book and a free registration for the next Viruses of Microbes Conference. See https://ivom.phage.directory for details.
Deadline for submission is Feb 16, so get your submissions in quickly! Winner will be announced at the last iVoM on Feb 18.
The Center for Microbiome Science at Ohio State University is hosting a Microbiome Informatics webinar series, running from March to May 2021. Register here! This series represents a first phase effort to digitize 7 years of a hands-on informatics training course in this space, with a focus that goes beyond 16S-based studies to leverage the power of shotgun sequencing. Each 1.5 – 2 hour webinar will provide a brief concept introduction, and then hands-on practical exercises designed to provide cutting-edge first phase of training in Microbiome Informatics to empower researchers to better understand microbes and their viruses in complex communities.
The first Africa Phage Forum recording is now on YouTube! Catch Prof. Paul Turner’s talk on phage therapy, from environment to bedside if you missed it! Great job organizers Emmanuel Nnadi & Angela Makumi of APF; it was a pleasure to collaborate!
As promised, the 24th biennial Evergreen International Phage Meeting will take place the first week of August 2021!
Assuming it is safe to do so, the conference will be hosted in person on the Evergreen campus, in the dorms, as done in the past. In-person attendance will be limited (max 100). Registration fees will be kept low similar to past meetings, just enough to pay for room and board (around $450 for students and postdocs, $550 for senior people). Talks will be recorded and made available online, likely for a small fee. Depending on speaker preference and experience, talks will range from 10 min to 25 min long.
For those interested in presenting, either online or in person, please reach out to Betty Kutter at [email protected]. More details on registration and themes will soon follow.
PHAVES #12 will be a seminar with Dr. Betty Kutter of the Evergreen State College on Tues, Feb 9 at 8AM Pacific Time / 11AM Eastern Time. Title: Phages as a teaching tool, and stories from 60 years of phage. Small group networking to follow! Register here!
Carmen (@PhageAnt on Twitter) would like to hear from you! Do you have any recommendations for any conferences/talks that are heavily involved in viral metagenomics? Reply to the Twitter post if you have any suggestions!
My name is Farhad Afrasiabi. Ph.D. student in the Department of Microbiology at Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, IRAN. I am interested in working on phage. I am currently working on a joint project to do my doctoral thesis on phage. Of course, I’ve also ready to work on any project that you want to do. Please email me at [email protected] to discuss opportunities.
BCM Tailor labs has posted a video tutorial on how to do a quick phage precipitation. In this video you will learn how to precipitate your phage in 10 to 15 minutes. This is in order to concentrate your phage from a solution. This can be modified for other viruses too.
Dr. Pilar García Suárez is editing a Special Issue of the journal Antibiotics called “Benefits of Bacteriophages to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria”.
RATIO PRESENTS: BACTERIOPHAGES: Join us on 2nd Feb when we will talk about merciless killers – the bacteriophages, small biological machines designed to kill bacteria.
This event will give an overview of the main principles of the bacteriophage ecology and discuss the implications in the phage therapy.
About the speaker: Andrey Letarov is the head of the laboratory of Microbial viruses at Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology RC Biotechnology RAS, Moscow, Russia. He is also a professor at Virology department of the faculty of biology of Lomonosov Moscow State University. During his whole scientific career he was studying various aspect of bacteriophage biology, including organization and folding of phage proteins, bacteriophage evolution, bacteriophage diversity and ecology.
International Bacteriophage Research Consortium on Twitter: "IBRC springs into action with its lecture series - 2021. We have Prof. Paul Turner onboard with us! An expert in steering phages and INSeq mutagenesis, Prof. Turner is an established authority in bio-therapeutic application of phages. Save the date : Jan 27, 2021. Stay tuned!
PhageAI 0.7.2 has been released!
What’s new: Life cycle classifier v1.3 to distinguish between virulent and temperate phages (accuracy benchmark); PhageAI as free Python package on GitHub and PyPI; Duplicate samples detection alert in phage display view; “History” tab in phage display view with historical predictions, and more!
PhageAI still offers: a possibility to upload your phage genomes and getting predictions of a lifecycle in less than a few seconds; creating projects and sharing it among your collaborators; building your private repository of bacteriophages; sharing your feedback concerning model predicitions with scientific community; 3D interactive plot tools.
Sign in to PhageAI and feel free to rate our efforts on your social media accounts using #PhageAI tag. You can follow us on Twitter @PhageAI to be up to date with the PhageAI roadmap.
Mayo Clinic is hosting a webinar on machine learning in phage therapy Jan 27 1PM MST. Register here. Featured Speaker: Cedric Lood, Researcher-Arenberg Doctoral Program at KU Leuven University-Belgium. Gina Suh, M.D. and William Faubion, M.D. from Mayo Clinic will moderate.
The fifth iVoM event will be Thursday, January 21, 4pm GMT, and the theme will be “Agro-food, veterinary and environmental biotechnology applications”.
It will feature talks by:
Sam R. Nugen - Department of Food Science and Technology, Cornell University
Danish J. Malik - Chemical Engineering Department, Loughborough University
Ana Oliveira - Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho
Chairs:
Mathias Middelboe - Department of Biology, Marine Biological Section, University of Copenhagen
Lone Brøndsted - Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen
Register for this event and/or the whole series at https://ivom.phage.directory.
PHAVES #11 will be a casual mixer to kick off the new year! We’ll get together on Zoom January 12 at 11:00 AM Eastern. We’ll start off with a bit of an “open mic” / “show and tell”, where attendees will have the option to share something they’re either proud of from last year or excited to be working on for the coming year. Then we’ll do a few sets of breakout rooms so we can all meet some new faces in smaller-group settings!
Register for this event and/or the whole series at https://phaves.phage.directory.
Phage Futures 2021 will have a young researcher showcase at their event this coming February! If you’re a young researcher attending the conference ($149 for students — register here), don’t forget to apply to present a poster virtually by Jan 22!
The TAILOR team at Baylor College of Medicine now has a YouTube channel! Check out their recent one, a recorded talk on AMR and phage therapy by one of TAILOR’s founders, Dr. Anthony Maresso, called Chasing Change: A moving pandemic, an adaptable medicine. Also watch another TAILOR founder, Dr. Sabrina Green, show you how to isolate phages from environmental samples.
The Africa Phage Forum is hosting a new phage webinar series, starting Jan. 14 at 11AM EST (4PM GMT) with special guest Dr. Paul Turner. Dr. Turner will give a talk entitled ‘From the environment to bedside: understanding the basics of phage therapy research’. Phage Directory is proud to partner with APF to bring this webinar series to the broader phage community!
Register for this event and/or the whole series at https://apf.phage.directory.
The Africa Phage Forum is hosting its next phage webinar in its series, Feb 15 at 4pm GMT / 11am Eastern with special guest Dr. Evelien Adriaenssens, who will give a talk entitled Basics of phage genome annotation and classification - how to get started. Register now for this event and/or the whole series at https://apf.phage.directory.
The Africa Phage Forum is hosting its first webinar, with special guest Dr. Paul Turner, who will give a talk entitled ‘From the environment to bedside: understanding the basics of phage therapy research’. Save the date for Jan. 14 at 11AM EST (4PM GMT). Registration details available soon!
In the lead up to the virtual Global Phage Futures Congress February 24-26 (register here), Dr Shawna McCallin, Clinical Coordinator, Balgirst University Hospital will provide a free webinar Jan 19 at 12:00 PM Eastern on establishing a database for phage therapy. Attend to understand how international collaboration can help to reduce reporting of positive bias and how, through involvement, members of the phage community can help to improve transparency, clinical trial design and patient safety.
Dr McCallin will also attend the virtual Global Phage Futures Congress, where she will chair a live discussion with experts including Dr Gina Suh, Dr Ben Chan, Dr Jon Iredell, and Dr Graham Hatfull on the topic: ‘Success or failure in compassionate use; why does phage therapy not always succeed?’
The Phage Team Uganda comprising of scientists, researchers and students from various backgrounds, is coming together to contribute to world Phage community in discovering the Phage potential for a better world. Follow our work via @PhagesUG on Twitter!
Check out the agenda for the 3rd Bacteriophage Therapy Summit - led by 25+ expert speakers from industry, academia and governmental bodies, this meeting will equip you with all the tools you need in order to accelerate the discovery and translation of bacteriophage research into therapeutics that achieve clinically significant results.
The Africa Phage Forum formed by a group of passionate African phage researchers provides a collaborative network for the promotion and sensitization of phage research in Africa. The forum is on a quest to seek solutions to common challenges plaguing phage advancement in the developing world through scholarship, collaboration, and mentorship. Learn more about this emerging community and connect here.
Eleanor Townsend and Eleanor Jameson (University of Warwick) are editing a special issue titled “Phage-Host Interaction in the Gut Microbiome and Their Impacts on Human Health and Disease” in MDPI’s International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The special issue focuses on the understudied regulatory interactions of phages with gut microbiota and the impact of human gut phageome on human health and diseases with the ultimate aim of bringing up phages for human health benefits.
The International Society for Viruses of Microorganisms has announced their newly elected executive board members for 2021-2022!
Congratulations to Rob Lavigne (President), Zuzanna Drulis-Kawa (President-elect), Andrew Millard (Vice-President), Paul Hyman (Treasurer), Shawna McCallin (Secretary/Information Officer), Aleksandra Petrovic Fabijan (Assistant Secretary), and Jessica Sacher (Private Partnership Officer).
The ISVM has also named its Staff functions for the year: Stephen Abedon (Web Developer) and J. Rodney Brister (Membership Secretary).
Contrary to what we announced last week, we’ve had to postpone PHAVES 11 with Dr. Iredell until 2021. Sorry to have gotten your hopes up! We’ll see you back in the new year for season 2 — thanks for an awesome first 10 episodes in 2020! Register to hear about future PHAVES events here.
The 23rd Congress of the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM) will be held in Boise, Idaho from 22nd to 26th May 2021.
The scientific agenda is focusing on the current understanding of pulmonary disease, viral transmission/risk mitigation, environmental aerosols, advancing imaging techniques, device/formulation strategies, emerging aerosol therapies and technologies with a focus on phages for respiratory applications.
From Dr. Reinhard Vehring, University of Alberta Prof. of Materials Engineering: “The conference is visited by many experts and practitioners in the respiratory field, so presenting phage therapy and development talks or posters there will reach an audience that could benefit greatly from an introduction to the potential of pulmonary or nasal phage therapy. I also think that an intellectual exchange between phage biologists and experts in respiratory drug delivery could be very beneficial for successful phage therapy via the respiratory route.”
The fourth iVoM event will be Thursday, December 17, 7pm GMT, and the theme will be “Virus-host interaction: molecular mechanisms”.
Talks:
- New discoveries on the immune system of bacteria — Rotem Sorek
- The regulation and activity of Class 1 CRISPR-Cas systems — Peter Fineran
- Molecular hijacking of Pseudomonas — Rob Lavigne
Chairs:
Karen Maxwell and Julia Frunzke
Register for the whole series or for individual events at https://ivom.phage.directory.
Two upcoming phage webinars organized by the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science:
- From Petri Dish to Patient: Mycobacteriophages and Their Therapeutic Potential (December 8): Register here.
- Phage and Antibiotics: Induction of an Antibacterial Type 7 Secretion System in Enterococcus faecalis (December 16): Register here.
This week included Giving Tuesday, and some of you likely donated to Phages for Global Health (PGH). A message from the PGH team: “Thank you so much for your gifts yesterday — between your contributions and matching funds we raised over $18,000 in just 24 hours! That’s the most we’ve ever received through crowdfunding in a single day.” If you’d like to donate or learn more, do so here!
My name is Tom Ireland and I’m a science writer based in the UK working on a popular-science book about phages. Under contract with a major publisher, the book aims to bring the wonder of phages to a mass audience, telling the fascinating history of phage science and exploring what phages can do for us in science, medicine and the environment.
I am currently making contact with phage scientists from across the world as part of my research, and I want to ask anyone who wishes to be featured to get in touch with me. I’m really keen to get to know lots of phage scientists, visit lots of phage labs and follow lots of different aspects of phage work in the course of my research. Please contact me at [email protected].
The recording for iVoM #2 (Virus Structure and Function with Petr Leiman, Kristin Parent and Pascale Boulanger) has been posted on the VoM 2020 Youtube channel!
(POSTPONED TO 2021) Save the date for the next rendition of PHAVES, a seminar with Dr. Jonathan Iredell, MD of the Westmead Institute for Medical Research and University of Sydney on Wed, Dec 16 at 8AM AEDT (Tues, Dec 15 at 4PM Eastern Time/10PM CET). He will give a talk entitled Phage Therapy: The Australian Experience. Small group networking to follow! Register here!
Thanks so much to the labs who reached out in response to our request for Serratia phages last week. In just a few days, the strain was shipped out to the first set of labs for testing. A few days after that, an active phage was found (by Ronen Hazan’s team at the Israel Phage Bank!) Sadly, the patient passed away this week, before they could receive the phage. Nonetheless, this formidable teamwork is worth celebrating, and we are proud of our phage community! Sign up to receive future urgent phage alerts here.
Join Jean-Paul Pirnay, PhD, Gina Suh, MD, and Nicholas Chia, PhD Nov 30, 2020 12:00 PM Central time for an engaging virtual discussion on phage therapy as a tool in the fight against antibiotic-resistant infections. The talk is entitled “Bacteriophages: It’s a Medicine, Jim, But Not As We Know It”.
We have started a small association in Switzerland called phageSuisse to bring different actors of phage therapy in Switzerland together. With this association, we launched a small webinar series. The first webinar will be on December 1st by Dr. Shawna McCallin. Her talk will be entitled “Moving Clinical Trials for Phage Therapy Forward”.
Good day! I am a 3rd year Medical Technology student from the Philippines and we are currently looking for MS2 Escherichia coli bacteriophage for our thesis project. I hope you can help me to look for the above said bacteriophage sample. Thank you so much. Email: [email protected] | FB/IG: @geordetteeve
The African Phage Forum is a new collaborative network of African phage researchers to promote and sensitize phage research in Africa, created by Dr. Emmanuel Nnadi, Dr. Rita Nakayinga, and Dr. Juliah Khayeli. They aim to motivate and mentor phage research students in African universities, share protocols, encourage collaboration, and work to advance phage research and policy implementation at national levels. Join the What’s App group here!
The third iVoM event will be Thursday, November 19, 4pm GMT, and the theme will be “Virus-host interaction: overcoming cell barriers”.
It will feature talks by:
Martin J. Loessner (ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland)
Carlos São-José (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)
Sigal Ben-Yehuda (Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School)
Chairs:
Madalena Pimentel (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)
Ry Young (Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA)
Register for the whole series or for individual events at https://ivom.phage.directory.
Looking for viruses in your microbiome data? KBase has new Apps to identify and analyze viral sequences in your assemblies. Join this webinar on Nov. 4 at 1pm ET/10am PT to learn the basics of viral analysis in KBase from Dr. Ben Bolduc of The Ohio State University. Ben and others in Dr. Matthew Sullivan’s lab at OSU have been working with the KBase team to integrate several viral tools to create their first viral genomics pipeline.
PHAVES #10 will be a seminar by Dr. Paul Jaschke, Assistant Professor at Macquarie University, Australia, on Nov. 10, 5:30 PM Eastern Time (GMT-4) / Nov. 11 at 9:30 AM AEST. His talk is entitled “Learning How to Engineer Genomes by Building Phage”, which will cover research stories about highly engineered øX174 phage created in his group and lessons learned about genome engineering in general and phage engineering in particular. Small group networking to follow!
The Ibadan Bacteriophage Research Team (IBRT) is hosting a series of webinars Oct 26-27 to celebrate World Phage Week! Theme: “Early Career Research in Bacteriophage Studies: A leverage for Bacteriophage Therapy Advancement”. Speakers: Prof. Urmi Bajpai, Dr. Nnadi Nnaemeka, Stephanie Lynch and Dr. Sabrina Green. Registration is now full, so if you secured a spot, lucky you! Otherwise stay tuned for info about possible recordings (follow the IBRT on Twitter for up-to-date info).
Dr. Jason Gill (Center for Phage Technology, Texas A&M) and Dr. Paul Turner (Yale University) will discuss their work on phage therapy to treat drug resistant bacterial infections in a free webinar hosted by The Scientist on Oct 29 from 2:30-4:00 PM Eastern time. Register here.
It’s World Phage Week (Oct 22-28)! Check out Twitter (#WorldPhageWeek) for lots of fun posts from the global phage community showcasing fun phage facts, great phage images and art, favourite papers, exciting milestones and more.
The phage research community sadly lost one of its greats this month; Dr. Richard Calendar passed away on October 10 following a long battle with prostate cancer.
Rich, as he was known to many, was a renowned UC Berkeley Professor of Molecular Biology (and later of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology) from 1968-2020. Based on the many accounts from his colleagues, he was a wonderfully optimistic colleague and friend, whose sense of humor will be deeply missed. He was an international leader in the study of phages targeting E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Bacillus anthracis. He was devoted to teaching, and one of his trainees even won the Nobel prize. Rich is known to many as having written the book on phage (literally!), and he worked at the bench until a month before he died. He will clearly be deeply missed, both by those who knew him and those who missed the chance to meet him.
Read UC Berkeley’s article in memory of Rich here, and read this Life in Science paper written by Rich in 2013, where he candidly sums up how he got into phage science and what he found there. Rest peacefully, Rich, and let us all continue your legacy of collaboration, mentorship, good humor, and curiosity.
I am looking for a collaborative research grant under INDIA-EU Cooperation on research & innovation Green Deal: Building a low-carbon, climate resilient future sponsored by Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi. I would like to develop phage cocktail as a Biocontrol agent in Food Industry and Veterinary purpose. Please contact me at [email protected]
The Ibadan Bacteriophage Research Team is hosting a series of webinars to celebrate International Phage Week at the end of the month! Talks will take place Oct 26 and 27. The theme will be “Early Career Research in Bacteriophage Studies: A leverage for Bacteriophage Therapy Advancement”. Speakers will be Prof. Urmi Bajpai, Dr. Nnadi Nnaemeka, Stephanie Lynch and Dr. Sabrina Green. Save the dates and register here.
Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology has a new research topic open, The Application of Phages Against Infectious Diseases. Editors: Pan Tao, Jeremy Barr, Jingmin Gu.
Proteon Pharmaceuticals is hosting a webinar Oct 28 (16:30 to 17:30 IST) on E. coli phages to treat poultry flocks. Register here.
The next rendition of PHAVES will be a seminar with Rodrigo Ibarra Chavez on Oct 20 at 11AM Eastern / 5PM CEST. He’ll tell us about phage-inducible chromosomal islands (PICIs), piracy in the phage-world, and insights on their application in biotechnology. Small group networking to follow! Register here!
Thanks so much to the nearly 300 people who attended the first iVoM webinar! The second iVoM event will be Thursday, October 15, 4PM GMT, and the theme will be “Virus structures and function”.
It will feature talks by:
Petr Leiman, University of Texas
Kristin Parent, Michigan State University
Pascale Boulanger, Université Paris-Saclay
Chairs:
Deborah Hinton, NIH
Paulo Tavares, Université Paris-Saclay
Register for the whole series or for individual events at https://ivom.phage.directory!
The Indian ‘Society for Bacteriophage Research and Therapy’ (SBRT) is a platform for phage researchers to share their expertise & resources. SBRT is pleased to announce a webinar on “Knowing the unknown: Approaches to characterize the vast uncharacterized proteome of bacteriophages” by Dr. Julianne H. Grose, Associate Professor, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA. The talk would be preceded by a keynote address by Prof. B.N. Tripathi, Deputy Director General, Animal Sciences, Indian Council of Agriculture Research Head Quarters, New Delhi. Please join us on 01 October (Thursday), 2020 at 7 pm IST/7.30 am MDT. We look forward to your participation. Register here.
The next rendition of PHAVES will be a seminar/Q&A with Dr. Emma Bell, Principal Bacteriophage Scientist at FixedPhage, and will take place October 6th at 4PM GMT+1. She’ll discuss their phage immobilization technology and how they’ve improved their phage production with the Cellexus CellMaker. Small group networking to follow.
Thanks to Cellexus for sponsoring this event!
Hi everybody, would anyone be kind enough to share bacterial strain BLT5403? It’s part of Novagen’s T7 phage kit. Unfortunately it didn’t make the move with me and I don’t want to buy a whole kit to just get the bacteria. — @Kean_Research via Twitter
Hello fellow phage workers - are you modifying phages, genetically or chemically, to improve their ability to act as therapeutics? Attaching toxins so the phage capsid provides specificity to target bacteria? Creating phage based vaccines? If you are making modified phages for treatments, please consider contributing to a special issue of Pharmaceuticals titled “Bacteriophages as Therapeutic Delivery Vehicles” edited by Paul Hyman ([email protected]), Tina Schneider ([email protected]), and Bryan Gibb ([email protected]). Contact us for more information or check the special issue home page.
The longest river of India, the Ganges, is reported for the richest diversity of bacteriophages compared to any other river across the globe. This diversity was formed when bacteriophages were trapped at the origin of the river millions of years ago because of the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. This resulted in the buildup of the Himalayas (Mountains) and as a seed source of bacteriophages which is continuously releasing them in the river water. I have isolated more than 30 different phage cocktails and various different bacterial hosts that are under investigation. The river Ganges is also known as a holy river of India since the times of British India due to its high antibacterial property. In the coming future, river Ganges may serve the purpose of the biggest and could be a source of novel bacteriophages. I am tweeting at @Atif_micro.
The next rendition of PHAVES will be a seminar with Dr. Panos Kalatzis (University of Copenhagen) on Sept 22 at 11:00 AM Eastern / 5:00 PM (GMT+2). Panos will tell us about the potential of phage therapy in aquaculture. Small group networking to follow! Learn more & register here!
Elections for the International Society for Viruses of Microorganisms (ISVM) Officers will take place in October 2020. We are still looking for more candidates who wish to serve on the ISVM Board and are extending the candidate application deadline until September 15, 2020.
As an Officer you can help shape the future of ISVM. All elected positions are open, but we are particularly interested in candidates for President-elect. Candidates are also sought for Vice-President, Secretary, Secretary Assistant, Treasurer. The election is open to all ISVM members.
All candidates should send your name, email address, and a brief bio describing your interest and qualifications (no more than one paragraph please) to [email protected].
Apply for the Viruses Young Investigator Award to win 2000 Swiss Francs, an offer to publish a paper free of charge without a fixed deadline in Viruses (subject to peer review), an engraved plaque, and an invitation to speak at the Viruses 2020 international virology conference.
Phages for Global Health is doing fantastic things in the phage field — they’ve trained phage researchers in developing countries who’ve collectively gone on to win hundreds of thousands in grant money within just a couple of years! If you have a moment, please vote for Phages for Global Health for the MIT Solve social impact award (category: Health Security and Pandemics).
The first iVoM event will be Sept. 17 at 11:00 AM GMT, under the theme “Ecology and evolution of microbial viruses”. It will feature talks by:
- Rob Edwards (Flinders University, Australia)
- Ruth-Anne Sandaa (University of Bergen, Norway)
- Colin Hill (University College Cork, Ireland)
Chairs:
- Corina Brussaard (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Netherlands)
- Debbie Lindell (Faculty of Biology at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel)
Register for the whole series or for individual events at https://ivom.phage.directory.
Phage Oxford will take place September 9-10. Register here!
The meeting will feature over 20 oral presentations by an international faculty of senior & junior researchers from across the world, covering phage molecular and structural biology; modelling; food and biotechnology applications; phage-host interactions; and therapeutic and antimicrobial applications. Furthermore, a life-time achievement award will be presented to Professor Elizabeth Kutter (citation by Martha Clokie), who will also give a keynote address.
The organizers of VoM 2020, in collaboration with ISVM and Phage Directory, are excited to announce iVoM, a series of online lectures from prominent researchers studying viruses of microbes. These events will run monthly from September to February, in the lead-up to the in-person version of VoM, which will still take place July 2021.
The first iVoM event will be Sept. 17 at 11:00 AM GMT, under the theme “Ecology and Evolution of microbial viruses”. It will feature talks by:
- Rob Edwards (Flinders University, Australia)
- Ruth-Anne Sandaa (University of Bergen, Norway)
- Colin Hill (University College Cork, Ireland)
Chairs:
- Corina Brussaard (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Netherlands)
- Debbie Lindell (Faculty of Biology at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel)
Register for the whole series or for individual events at https://ivom.phage.directory.
The next rendition of PHAVES will be a seminar with Dr. Sabrina Green, PhD on Sep 1 at 6 PM EST (GMT-4), 8 AM Sept 2 AEST. (Now at an Australia/NZ-friendly time!)
Sabrina will give a short talk called TAILORing Phage Therapy for the Gut and Beyond. Small group networking to follow! Register (& read more about her talk) here!
The Pathogens journal has opened a Special Issue about “host-pathogens interactions and phage therapy”. — Gabriel Almeida
The 2nd Hanson Wade Bacteriophage Therapy Summit takes place (virtually) Aug 27-28, and registration is open! On the Thursday afternoon of the conference, we’ll present our vision of how to use technology to scale up phage therapy.
The KITP Bacteriophage Forum continues (virtually) Aug 25 at noon Pacific: Luciano Marrafini (Rockefeller/HHMI) and Paul Turner (Yale) will speak. Register here.
Save the date for PHAVES, which continues Sep 1 at 6 PM EST (GMT-4), 8 AM Sept 2 AEST. (Welcome Australia and NZ! We moved the time for this one, so you won’t be asleep!) Dr. Sabrina Green of Baylor College of Medicine and BCM TAILOR Labs will tell us about her gut phage research (she defended her PhD just yesterday!! Congrats Sabrina!!) and about her work co-founding TAILOR labs, which produces therapeutic phages for patients. Small-group networking session to follow!
Phage Directory is exploring a new opportunity related to phage sharing, and we’re looking to hear from the phage community! Phage biotech companies are seeking to expand their phage collections (for therapeutics and biocontrol), and we’re helping them identify research labs interested in sharing/licensing their phages. Do you collect phages? If so, I’d love to talk to you about this new opportunity. Email [email protected].
Learn about TAILOR on ASM-TMC MicroTalks
Dr. Austen Terwilliger, Director of Operations at Baylor College of Medicine’s TAILOR Service Center, which produces therapeutic phages for compassionate use cases, will give a talk on ASM-TMC MicroTalks on Aug. 17 at 3:15 PM Central (GMT-5); (info and Zoom link here).
Bacteriophage Therapy Summit
Hanson Wade
The 2nd Hanson Wade Bacteriophage Therapy Summit takes place (virtually) Aug 27-28, and registration is open!
We (Jessica and Jan, Phage Directory) are excited to be participating in a panel discussion/workshop alongside Dr. Austen Terwilliger of BCM TAILOR Labs, hosted by Dr. Liesl Jeffers-Francis of North Carolina A&T State University, about the development of a universal phage database and (distributed) phage library.
Phage Oxford: Virtual Conference
Phage Oxford will take place September 9-10. Register here!
The meeting will feature over 20 oral presentations by an international faculty of senior & junior researchers from across the world, covering phage molecular and structural biology; modelling; food and biotechnology applications; phage-host interactions; and therapeutic and antimicrobial applications. Furthermore, a life-time achievement award will be presented to Professor Elizabeth Kutter (citation by Martha Clokie), who will also give a keynote address.
Introducing the Viruses of Microbes 2020 Webinar Series: Take a walk on the VoM side
VoM 2020 Organizers, ISVM, Phage Directory
Many of us were excited about Viruses of Microbes (VoM) 2020, the conference that had been set to take place this summer in Portugal. In collaboration with the International Society for Viruses of Microorganisms (ISVM) and Phage Directory, the organizers of VoM 2020 are excited to announce iVoM, a series of online lectures from prominent researchers studying viruses of microbes. These events will run monthly from September to February, in the lead-up to the in-person version of VoM, which will still take place July 2021.
The first iVoM event will be Sept. 17 at 11:00 AM GMT, under the theme “Ecology and Evolution of microbial viruses”. It will feature talks by:
- Rob Edwards (Flinders University, Australia)
- Ruth-Anne Sandaa (University of Bergen, Norway)
- Colin Hill (University College Cork, Ireland)
Chairs:
- Corina Brussaard (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Netherlands)
- Debbie Lindell (Faculty of Biology at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel)
Register for the whole series or for individual events at https://ivom.phage.directory.
PHAVES 5: AMA with Dr. Evelien Adriaenssens on Aug 18
Phage Directory
The next rendition of PHAVES will be an Ask Me Anything (AMA) with Dr. Evelien Adriaenssens on August 18 at 11:00 AM Eastern (GMT-4) / 4:00 PM UK (GMT+1). Evelien will answer your questions about phage taxonomy, viromics, and her transcontinental career progression from PhD student to postdoc to new PI, so bring your questions! Register here!
SBRT Webinar: Phages for Global Health
Society for Bacteriophage Research and Therapy (SBRT)
The Indian Society for Bacteriophage Research and Therapy (SBRT) is a platform where researchers working on phages and their applications share expertise & resources.
SBRT is pleased to announce a webinar on “Using phages to combat AMR: Scientific capacity building through laboratory training workshops” by Dr. Tobi Nagel, Founder & President, Phages for Global Health; Prof. Martha Clokie, Professor, University of Leicester, UK & Editor-in-Chief of PHAGE: Therapy, Applications, and Research, and Dr. Janet Nale, Research Associate, University of Leicester. The mission of Phages for Global Health, a US non-profit, is to facilitate the application of phage technology and empower scientists to develop phage products that will be both technically effective and socially accepted within the local cultural contexts of the trainees.
Please join us on 14 August (Friday) at 8.30 pm IST/8 am PDT/4 pm BST. Register here.
PHAVES 5: AMA with Dr. Evelien Adriaenssens on Aug 18
Phage Directory
Thanks to all who attended PHAVES 4 this week! We had a great turnout!
Next up will be an Ask Me Anything (AMA) with Dr. Evelien Adriaenssens on August 18 at 11:00 AM Eastern (GMT-4) / 4:00 PM UK (GMT+1). Evelien will answer your questions about phage taxonomy, viromics, and her transcontinental career progression from PhD student to postdoc to new PI, so bring your questions! Register here!
Seeking MS2 phage
Hello Everyone ! I’m in need of the MS2 bacteriophage and its host E. coli strain in India. Other than ATCC, I find no suppliers in India. Could anyone please share them or direct me to a supplier in India please? Thanks much ! [email protected]
Bacteriophage Forum: A series of ecology/evolution phage talks
Kavli Institute, UC Santa Barbara
The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara is hosting a series of phage talks (particularly from the eco-evolutionary perspective) called Bacteriophage Forum.
The dates are: August 11,18, 25 and September 1, 8, 2020 at 12:00-1:15, 1:30-2:45 pm PDT.
Tentative line-up of the talks:
Aug 11: Matthew Sullivan (OSU) and Forest Rohwer (SDSU)
Aug 18: Graham Hatfull (Pittsburgh/HHMI) and Joshua Weitz (Georgia Tech)
Aug 25: Luciano Marrafini (Rockefeller/HHMI) and Paul Turner (Yale)
Sept 1: Alison Buchan (UTK) and Britt Koskella (UCB)
PHAVES 4 is happening on Tuesday!
Phage Directory
Our next PHAVES event will take place Aug. 4 at 11:00 AM EST / 8:30 PM IST. We’ll be interviewing Pranav Johri and Apurva Virmani Johri, founders of Vitalis Phage Therapy, about their impressive progress improving access to phage therapy in India.
Register for PHAVES (as an attendee or a future speaker!) at https://seminars.phage.directory.
Funding opportunity: plant pathogen treatment
Innovative Solutions Canada
Innovative Solutions Canada is looking to fund small businesses developing phytosanitary treatment options to control plant pests. Maybe a job for phages?
Huge thanks to our new (and not-so-new) volunteers!
Phage Directory
We’d like to give a shout-out to our new volunteers, M. R. Madhav (phage protocols curator for our future phage protocol compendium — contribute yours on Slack!), Curtis Hoffmann (Twitter and LinkedIn), and Lizzie Richardson (Capsid & Tail feature editing). We’re so excited to have you on board!
Thanks also to our not-so-new volunteers, Rohit Kongari (Capsid & Tail link collecting) and Stephanie Lynch (PHAVES organizing)! Thanks to you, we’ve been able to keep expanding into new areas while keeping our ongoing community projects rolling!
Seeking collaboration
Martin Inyimili
I have been working on phages from 2018. I now have several phages which I need to extract their DNA and sequence on the nanopore sequencer. Can someone help me on how to do this especially sequencing several samples at once. Please contact me on Twitter or email [email protected] if you can help.
PHAVES 4: How Pranav Johri made it easier to access phage therapy in India
Our next PHAVES event will take place Aug. 4 at 11:00 AM EST / 8:30 PM IST. We’ll be interviewing Pranav Johri, founder of Vitalis Phage Therapy, about his impressive progress improving access to phage therapy in India. Pranav is also the creator and host of the All About Phage Therapy virtual series.
Phage.ai, the interactive platform created by Piotr Tynecki (SLAVIC AI) and Proteon Pharmaceuticals, has released a new update! You can use phage.ai to access 10K phage sequences with extended characteristics (lifecycle, taxonomy, hosts, topology, strandedness, etc), make predictions about your own phages (eg. predict lifestyle), and more!
PhageOption 2020 Postponed
The PhageOption 2020 meeting scheduled to take place in Cartagena, Colombia, in November has been postponed to 2022.
Join us this coming Tuesday, July 21 for PHAVES 3!
Phage Directory
Our next PHAVES event will be Tuesday, July 21 at 11 AM Eastern, 5 PM CEST (GMT+2).
Piotr Tynecki of SLAVIC AI, the creator of phage.ai, will give a talk entitled "Boosting phage exploration by Artificial Intelligence: what could data science do for your research?"
Sign up here at seminars.phage.directory. If you’ve already signed up for the whole series, no action necessary! You’ll get an email closer to the date.
Wondering about the recap/recording of PHAVES 2? We will recap PHAVES 2 and 3 in next week’s Capsid & Tail.
Question for the community
Emmanuel Nnadi, Plateau State University, Nigeria
Would you consider a phage that has acitivity against Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus capitis, Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas spp an asset or liability? Good phage or bad phage? Email: [email protected]
Seeking used phage equipment
Emmanuel Nnadi, Plateau State University, Nigeria
Are you changing lab or upgrading equipment? Consider donating used or old equipment to our phage lab to help us build our phage capacity. Email: [email protected]
Pseudomonas Seminar Series
Cassandra Nelson, University of Maryland
Next week’s Pseudomonas Seminar will be held on Tuesday July 21th at 1pm EST. Our speaker will be Dr. Patrick Secor from the University of Montana presenting “The intersection of quorum sensing and Pf bacteriophage replication”. Register here.
Join us July 21 for PHAVES 3!
Phage Directory
Thanks so much to everyone who joined us for PHAVES earlier this week, where Elyse Stachler talked about her research into combining phages with disinfectants. We had a great time meeting so many of you at the breakout sessions that followed! Her session will be recapped later this month here in Capsid & Tail!
Our next event will be Tuesday, July 21 at the same time, 11 AM Eastern, 5 PM CEST (GMT+2). Piotr Tynecki of SLAVIC AI, the creator of phage.ai, will give a talk entitled “Boosting phage exploration by Artificial Intelligence: what could data science do for your research?” Sign up here at seminars.phage.directory. If you’ve already signed up for the whole series, no action necessary! You’ll get an email closer to the date.
Call for proposals
Innovative Solutions Canada
Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) has an open grant call for “Detection of food borne pathogenic bacteria using field deployable instruments”. Any phage companies in Canada working on such things? Apply by July 28, 2020. Check out other ISC challenges here.
All About Phage Therapy: Dr. Vinod Kumar
Vitalis Phage Therapy
This Sunday, Dr Vinod Kumar CS will share his expertise of 20yrs working w/ #Bacteriophage & #AMR on Ep. 8 of #AllAboutPhageTherapy! His recent studies include #PhageKinetics of #MRSA phages & #Phage as alternative to chlorine to treat wastewater. Tune in 12 Jul 4pm IST.
Watch: All About Phage Therapy Episode 7
Vitalis Phage Therapy
In case you missed it, Pranav Johri of Vitalis Phage Therapy interviewed Jean-Paul Pirnay of the Queen Astrid Military Hospital in Belgium today on All About Phage Therapy. Watch the recording here!
Seeking labs that have cultured soil viruses
Gary Trubl
Hey virus people! I would like to get a list of labs that have cultured soil viruses. If you are one or know one can you add to the list? Only the lab name & website are required. This resource would really help the community. RT — @gtrubl on Twitter
PHAVES is back on Tuesday with Dr. Elyse Stachler!
Phage Directory
Our virtual event series, PHAVES, continues this coming Tuesday, July 7 at 11:00 AM Eastern (GMT-4) / 5:00 PM Zurich (GMT+2). Dr. Elyse Stachler, postdoc at Eawag in Switzerland, will share her research into combining phages with disinfectants. After that, we’ll host a set of small-group breakout rooms so everyone can meet a few new faces in the phage field. Register here: https://seminars.phage.directory/
Seeking research & networking opportunities
Abiola Olaitan
I am excited about moving to Canada and seeking research opportunities (academia or industry) in phage therapy in Canada. I am an early-career researcher with robust experience in bacterial antibiotic resistance and host-pathogen interactions. I plan to transition into phage therapy research at the interphase of microbial antibiotic resistance and virulence. I am currently seeking networking and research opportunities in academic or industrial institutions in Canada. Email: [email protected]
IBRC Webinar July 9: Prof. Yves Briers
International Bacteriophage Research Consortium
International Bacteriophage Research Consortium (IBRC), created by Open Health Systems Laboratory (OHSL), USA and Acharya Narendra Dev College (ANDC), University of Delhi, India is organizing an online lecture by Prof. Yves Briers from Ghent University, Belgium on “From discovery to high-throughput engineering of phage lysins targeting Gram-negative bacteria”. Recently, Yves Briers and team have developed a brilliantly conceptualized high-throughput discovery platform ‘VersaTile’ an iterative approach to design, build, and screen engineered lysins. Yves Briers will be joining us from Ghent, Belgium on 9 July (Wednesday) at 5.00 pm Indian Standard Time (IST)/ 1.30 pm Central European Summer Time (CEST). We look forward to your participation. For registration, please click: https://bit.ly/3dWKrD4
Save the date for PHAVES 2!
Phage Directory
PHAVES will continue on July 7th, most likely at 11:00 AM EDT (UTC-4) / 5:00 PM CEST (UTC+2), so save the date!
Details will be posted here closer to the date: https://seminars.phage.directory.
Check out the recap (and recording) of episode 1 here! Thanks to everyone who joined us for the kick-off, and we hope to see you on the 7th!
Seeking T2 & T6 phages
Jeremy Barr, Monash University
The Barr lab is looking for laboratory-adapted strains of T2 and T6 phage from different labs to examine variation between them and older stocks. If you have either of these phages and would be willing to send us an aliquot of blot that would be greatly appreciated. We would acknowledge receipt and use of phages in any upcoming manuscripts. Email: [email protected]
Seeking P. aeruginosa phages in development
Camilo Barbosa
Hi @phagedirectory, I’m looking for phages against P. aeruginosa that are in the processes of getting FDA approval or are already approved for use in humans as therapy. Can you help me spreading the word or pointing me in the right direction? DM with +info, thx! — @cbarbosap88
Seeking advice
Hello, #phage tweeps! I have a question. Suppose you have a bunch of phage MAGs, each composed of more than 1 contig: how do you calculate their completeness? I have a couple of ideas, but I still need to evaluate their feasibility. - @MichaelTangher1 on Twitter; check thread for responses!
Seeking collaborator
I’m looking for a collaborator on #phage #phagetherapy #Acinetobacter & antimicrobial resistance. The call is specifically for a collaboration with Japan. Please let me know if you know anyone - Thank you! DM or email: Leptihn(at)intl.zju.edu.cn - @LeptihnLab on Twitter
Excited about your new paper? Consider writing a Behind-the-Paper blog post!
Phage Directory
Do you have a new or upcoming paper that you’re excited about sharing with the phage community? We’d like to publish more Behind the Paper articles (like last week’s by Prof. Yves Briers) in future Capsid & Tail issues. To take part, email [email protected], and we’ll get you set up as a guest writer.
Special Issue of Pharmaceuticals journal
Paul Hyman, Ashland University
Are you modifying phages, genetically or chemically, to improve their ability to act as therapeutics? Attaching toxins so the phage capsid provides specificity to target bacteria? Creating phage based vaccines? If you are making modified phages for treatments, please consider contributing to a special issue of Pharmaceuticals titled “Bacteriophages as Therapeutic Delivery Vehicles” edited by Paul Hyman ([email protected]), Tina Schneider ([email protected]), and Bryan Gibb ([email protected]). Contact us for more information.
Seeking collaborator
Emmanuel Nnadi, Plateau State University
We have in our collection, E. coli, P. aeruginosa and S. aureus phages. We would wish to characterize them molecularly and under the microscope. We do not have any such capacity in our lab. We see for collaboration to enable us to characterize these phages. If you are interested in these phages. Please reach me via [email protected]
PHAVES Kick-off Party!
Phage Directory
Phage Directory’s Virtual Event Series, PHAVES, starts this Tuesday, June 16 at 9:00 AM MDT (GMT-6)! For the kickoff event, Jessica and Jan will introduce the virtual series and Phage Directory’s projects for 2020, and we’ll then grab coffee and/or beer, catch up with everyone, and meet some new faces! No registration required: Zoom link will be posted here closer to the date: https://seminars.phage.directory/
New! Phage Directory Sustaining Sponsor Program
Phage Directory
We’re excited to announce that we’ve launched an ongoing sponsorship program for Phage Directory’s community building activities, and we have our first Bronze Sponsor: JAFRAL!
JAFRAL is the world’s only CMO/CRO dedicated primarily to phage manufacturing, and we are thrilled to have their ongoing support.
This support helps us continue to build up the phage community and especially to plan for the long term, and we are very grateful! Email [email protected] to learn more about how you can support us.
Seeking scholarship support
Atiwich Patthamapornsirikul
My name is Atiwich and I am graduated from Horticultural Science at University of Bologna. I am a prospect Ph.D. student at Plant Pathology, INRAe PACA, Avignon, France, in the research project entitled “Building biocontrol of plant disease caused by Pseudomonas syringae from the knowledge of biodiversity of phages naturally present in agriculture”. I am nominated as a waiting list for Franco-Thai scholarship but the grant can be at 1060 euro per month while there is some amount to be fulfilled. I am writing this letter to ask for a partial scholarship. Thank you. If you can help, please email me at [email protected].
Lecture by Prof. Graham Hatfull: Mycobacteriophages: Diversity, dynamics and therapy
We are very pleased to have Prof. Graham Hatfull share his inspiring body of work on mycobacteriophages through live in discussion with us. Graham Hatfull’s research focuses on the molecular genetics of the mycobacteria and their bacteriophages. His work with students has served as an impressive model for the HHMI Science Education Alliance Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) program in the United States that introduces undergraduate students to authentic scientific research in a two-term course and has facilitated collection of over 15,000 phage isolates. This collection of phages led to the creation of a phage cocktail that was recently used to fight an antibiotic resistant infection in a 15-year old lung transplant patient.
Prof. Hatfull will be joining us from Pittsburgh, USA on Wednesday, 17 June at 6.30 pm Indian Standard Time (IST)/ 9 am Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). Register here.
Phages 2020 Virtual
Muhammad Sohail, Conference Director
09-10 September 2020
http://lpmhealthcare.com/phages-2020-virtual/
Twitter: @PhageOxford; Hashtag: #PhgOx20V
Email: [email protected]
The themes and focus of the meeting will be all aspects of bacteriophage research, in particular bacteriophage application in medicine, food and biotechnology.
The meeting will run over two days, with a 3-4 hour session each day, consisting of invited presentations by senior scientists, and submitted short presentations by emerging researchers and students. There will also be an opportunity to present posters digitally. We particularly invite emerging phage researchers – final-year doctoral students and early-/mid-career postdoctoral researchers/junior group leaders – to submit abstracts for short oral and poster presentations to benefit from this unique opportunity.
Episode 5 of “All About Phage Therapy”
Vitalis Phage Therapy
In the fifth episode of All About Phage Therapy, we talked with Dr Aradhana Vipra, head of microbiology and Dr Jagadeesh Bhat, senior scientific manager at India’s first phage research company, GangaGen Biotechnologies. If you have any questions regarding phage therapy, please write to us at [email protected]
Save the date for PHAVES!
Phage Directory
It’s almost time for PHAVES: Phage Directory Virtual Event Series! (The acronym was too good; how could we not?)
Save the date for June 16 at 8 AM Pacific Time (GMT-7) (details to come).
And we’re keeping signups open on a rolling basis, so go ahead and sign up if you’d like to present this summer. Or you can nominate your phaves for PHAVES, like some have already done. (Do that by email at [email protected]). See you on Zoom soon!
Many thanks to Stephanie Lynch from the Helbig Lab at La Trobe University for helping us organize this series! Also it’s her birthday this week! Happy birthday Stephanie!
Sharing phage protocols: help others, help yourself
Got phage protocols, or wish you did? The community can probably help!
Here’s an example from Twitter: “Hey, I’m working on phages and need to extract phage dna for characterization. Would you recommend Zymo kit for extraction? If not, which kit would work for me?” —@mart_1982 (Check the thread for responses).
We’re also starting to collect phage protocols in our Slack group. Eventually we’ll create a phage methods compendium based on what’s shared.
Episode 4 of “All About Phage Therapy”
Vitalis Phage Therapy
In the 4th ed. of #AllAboutPhageTherapy we’re honored to have Dr Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Kutter live in discussion. Lovingly referred to as “The First Lady of #PhageResearch”, Betty is one of the most experienced & respected phage experts worldwide. Make sure to tune in: May 31@10pm IST.
Update to Capsid & Tail: Could phages cure asthma?
Phage Directory
We learned that the CURE project partner from Sweden, which we wrote about in last week’s Capsid & Tail article, “Could phages cure asthma?”, is no longer part of the CURE team. Thanks very much to Sofia Romagosa at the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations (EFA) for bringing this to our attention!
Save the date for Episode Three of All About Phage Therapy!
Vitalis Phage Therapy
Tune in at 11 a.m. IST this Sunday, 24th May for a live discussion with Dr. Gopal Nath, who will talk to us about his experiences with clinical application of phage therapy, presenting phage therapy to medical regulators, and the century-old connection of phages to the river Ganges, which flows through the historic city of Varanasi, where he resides, and lots more!
Catch the recordings of episodes 1 and 2 (interviews with Sanjay Chhibber and Mzia Kutateladze) here.
Apply to present in the Phage Directory Virtual Event Series!
Phage Directory
Sign up to present your research in the upcoming Phage Directory Virtual Events Series! And let us know who you’d like to hear from, or suggest a topic, by contacting us on Slack or via email: [email protected].
We’ll be tailoring the format of these talks to each presenter/topic. Formats we’re considering: research seminar, panel discussion, mini poster blitz sessions, one-on-one interviews, journal club, informal mixer, AMA (Ask Me Anything).
We’re already putting the summer schedule together, so please register your interest by June 5! And if you’re interested in sponsoring, email [email protected] and we’ll send you details.
And a very special thank you to Stephanie Lynch, who is helping us organize!
Apply to present in the Phage Directory Virtual Event Series!
The phage community wants virtual events! We’re working hard on answering that call.
You can now apply to present your research, or nominate a speaker, topic or format via Slack or email: [email protected].
Formats we’re considering: traditional research seminar + Q&A, panel discussion, interview, journal club, informal mixer, AMA (Ask Me Anything).
And if you’re interested in sponsoring, email [email protected] and we’ll send you details.
We’re starting soon, so stay tuned!
Special Issue: Viruses of Microbes 2020
Submissions are open to the special issue of the journal Viruses, “Viruses of Microbes 2020: The Latest Conquests on Viruses of Microbes”.
This issue is associated with the 2021 meeting from the International Society of Viruses of Microbes (ISVM) to be held in Guimarães, Portugal in 2021, and intends to be a platform for the latest advances on research of microbial viruses, from ecology and evolution, to virus structure and function, and from virus-host interaction to biotechnology applications and phage therapy.
ISVM members receive a 10% discount and a limited number of fee waivers is available. Please contact guest editors in advance by email about planned submissions. Guest editors: Tessa Quax, Marianne De Paepe, Karin Holmfeldt.
Seeking phage data for undergraduate Bioanalytical Phage course
Maria Cambraia Guimaro, PhD, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
I am a Postdoctoral Teaching Associate working for STEM BUILD, an undergraduate success initiative investigating ways to enhance the diversity and success of STEM students. We offer an 8-week Summer Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience during their sophomore year. Initially, we were planning to have the students performing molecular biology experiments and chemistry analytical experiments about phages or their environments. Usually, the students perform some analysis, write an abstract, and present a poster at a local undergraduate symposium.
As we will not be able to perform bench experiments on campus due to COVID-19, I am trying to get access to previously generated data related to phages (or to their original environment) to analyze with our students. I am seeking researchers willing to share any spare analytical data (chromatography, mass spectrometry, pH, samples moisture, cations, salt concentration, organic matter, microscopy images, etc) that can be used in our class. You would be included in any analysis or material produced by our students during this summer experience.
Additionally, is anyone aware of any online bank or open database where researchers deposit analytical/chemical data from phages? The data could be also related to the environment where these phages were collected (soil, water, etc) or any other analysis related to phages.
If you can help, please contact me at [email protected].
Seeking Norwegian collaborator
Jesca Lukanga Nakavuma (BVM, PhD), Makerere University
We are applying for NORHED II grants and we wish to actualize the Eastern Africa phage research consortium aimed at establishing/upgrading a lab for in-depth characterization of phages, establishing a phage bank, and developing regional policies for phage applications. I am spearheading a proposal on phages against zoonotic pathogens from animal production systems.
We plan to have Makerere University as the lead applicant for the Southern partners with others including someone from Ethiopia, Tanzania and Institute of primate research in Kenya. We must have a Norwegian collaborator. Establishing linkages with biological product companies for production at commercial scale is also important.
Please contact [email protected] if you are interested.
Seeking European collaborator
Emmanuel Nnadi, Plateau State University, Bokkos, Nigeria
Would you be interested in collaborating on a grant fellowship application? I plan to apply for the EDCTP-TMA2020CDF - Career Development Fellowships on poverty-related diseases particularly evaluating the role of phage therapy in diarrhoeal infections with particular emphasis on E. coli. This will require a European partner to collaborate on this project.
If you would be interested in collaborating on this project please freely reach me via email [email protected].
Let’s get some virtual phage events going!
Phage Directory
We’ve heard from many of you that you’re missing out on hearing about each other’s phage work! So we’re putting together a plan for a series of virtual phage events.
Let us know your topic suggestions, nominate a speaker (maybe yourself!), and share virtual event tips in our Slack group: https://phage.directory/slack.
Upcoming Virtual Series: All About Phage Therapy
Vitalis Phage Therapy
In these difficult times of pandemic lockdowns and quarantine, we bring you a series of discussions called “All About Phage Therapy”. For the first discussion, senior microbiologist Prof. Sanjay Chhibber from Panjab University will be joining us on Facebook Live on Sunday, 10th May at 11 am Indian Standard Time. Join at https://facebook.com/VitalisPhageTherapy.
Upcoming Virtual Event: Phages for aquaculture
Aquatic Biologicals
We are excited to announce and share with you the forthcoming talk of the CEO and founder of Aquatic Biologicals, Dr. Pantelis Katharios, who is going to give a webinar through #EAStalk on “Phage therapy as an alternative treatment in aquaculture. Applications in fish hatcheries”. If you are interested in getting further insights about bacteriophages and the great potential of phage therapy, make sure you mark your calendars for 26th May at 14.00 CET/Brussels time.
RNA phage request
Jameel Ahmad Khan, PhD, Head R&D (IVD-Division), Trivitron Healthcare
I am working on a COVID-19 RNA isolation kit. We are observing huge lab to lab variations in RNA yield among Pathology labs. Therefore, I am planning to use RNA phage Particles as internal control for RNA isolation. Can you please help me in sourcing M2 phage or any similar harmless/safe RNA phage for this purpose through your phage community network? [email protected]
Seeking farm samples for phage hunting
Steffanie Strathdee, IPATH, UCSD
Do you live on a farm? IPATH is finally re-opening after our lab was swamped by COVID19. We’re looking for volunteers to send samples from animal farms for phage hunts. Email [email protected] for instructions if you want to help!
Seeking opportunity
Hi, My name is Sunil Nawaz. I have M.phil in Microbiology degree with published research work. I have experience in blog writing, science writing, Academic teaching and Pharmaceutical Microbiology Lab. I am looking for a Job in a research group or a PhD studentship. I am also available for any roles in science publishing journals. If you think we can have a talk please contact me at [email protected]. You can also connect to me via LinkedIn. Thank you.
Seeking Research Partner in Portugal
Hi I’m Prathaban Munisamy (Ph.D., Microbiology), working as Assistant Professor, in a deemed University in Tamilnadu, India. Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt of India, has called India-Portugal joint proposal of research. I would like to propose a project on Bacteriophage, for this I need a Portugal research partner jointly to apply for India-Portugal research program. Any suggestions or relevant information for the above said are highly appreciated. Email: [email protected]
Seeking postdoc opportunity
I am Kübra CAN, I am working at Istanbul University of Medicine Turkey, I am looking a postdoc researcher position for one year about phages, especially European countries. I have strong experience about clinical microbiology, phage isolation, phage therapy. My country Turkey will give me scholarship from TUBITAK for covering my salary and I need to apply an invitation letter. You can reach me by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @KbraCan72857683.
Thank you so much for your help,
Best regards
Kübra CAN
Featuring:
- extended life cycle classifier with chronic infection support
- novel taxonomy classifier for ORDER, FAMILY and GENUS
- CSV data export, batch upload, performance improvements
- REST API and phageai Python package
- More than 11k public phages
Follow @phageai on Twitter to stay up to date!
Phages for Global Health Newsletter
Phages for Global Health’s newsletter is out (subscribe here). They announce they’ve acquired the funding for their first phage workshop in Asia, set to take place in Malaysia in November 2020 if the COVID situation allows.
IPATH Newsletter
IPATH’s quarterly newsletter is out (subscribe here); in it they discuss how an IPATH phage lab, the Pride Lab, is now doing COVID testing. They interview IPATH physician Saima Aslam about phage therapy, COVID, and life. They’ve also got links to several great seminars on COVID, evolution, AMR and phages. Of note, IPATH’s intake of new phage therapy patients is currently on hiatus due to the COVID crisis.
VoM2020 Postponed to July 2021
Viruses of Microbes 2020 will be postponed by one year: the proposed new dates are 05-09 July 2021. Read more at www.vom2020.org.
You’re invited to Phage Directory’s Slack Community
This week we introduced a new channel: #phage-manufacturing; come here to discuss anything related to scale-up of phage preparations (challenges, opportunities, questions, helpful papers, etc).
In March, we introduced a #covid-amr channel (read more about why here).
We’ve also got a #phage-ai-ml channel (stay tuned for a new seminar series on this topic).
Join these conversations at https://phage.directory/slack!
Crowdfight COVID-19 is seeking researchers with phage display expertise
Task [590a] A researcher is exploring the possibility of using selected phages (instead of anti-bodies) to detect COVID-19 antigens in ELISA. Phages have been used earlier for ELISA with the advantage of lower cost, ease of production and greater affinity. He is looking for any researchers with experience in phage display to discuss these ideas.
If interested, fill out the form here. Subscribe to hear about more Crowdfight COVID tasks here.
Seeking phage for research
Catherine M. Loc-Carrillo, MSc, PhD
Director, Micro-Phage Epi Laboratory
Dear phageophiles – I’m hoping that one of you has or knows someone who has Pseudomonas phi6 (ATCC 21781-B1). I’m trying to get hold of this phage so I can use it as a control for some of our experiments. The ATCC no longer has that phage in stock – they didn’t say why. I don’t need the bacterial host as I have that in my lab so shipping phage should be less of an issue. I’ll be happy to use my FedEx account so it doesn’t cost you anything.
Sincerely, Catherine
[email protected]
Impacts of COVID crisis on phage activities?
Milan Bunata, MB Pharma
Hi everyone, has your phage activities been affected by the COVID situation? If so, how? Fortunately, we are still 100% working, but not knowing if we are the only one? Or one of few? What is your situation? [email protected]
Viruses of Microbes 2020 Conference Update
On account of the current situation of worldwide spreading coronavirus SARS-CoV2, the organising committee might have to consider post-postponing Viruses of Microbes 2020, initially planned to take place on the 13-17 July. However, due to the uncertainty related to the effect of this worldwide spreading, it would be too premature to set now a new date. As a result we have decided to:
i) Extend the abstract submission period until the end of April;
ii) Suspend, for now, registration.
We will of course continue monitoring the situation concerning COVID-19 and as soon as we have a clearer picture of the situation we will update this information.
On behalf of the Organizing Committee,
Joana Azeredo and Madalena Pimentel
Twitter Q&A: SARS-CoV2-like phages?
From Karen Maxwell, via Twitter: #phage community - which phage is most SARS-CoV2 like? Seems like many assays for inactivation, etc could be widely performed and then translated. Who has stocks???
Free Bioinformatics Resources
From Elizabeth McDaniel, via Twitter: There’s a lot of interest right now for learning bioinformatics skills while lab research is suspended and everybody is working from home. I wanted to share free resources for learning coding basics and field-specific materials. (See thread for tons of resources!)
A warm welcome to our new volunteers!
Phage Directory has three new volunteers! Please welcome Lauren Dunlop, Dr. Rohit Kongari and Lizzie Richardson! Lauren helps us behind the scenes with things like finding out about grants we can apply for. Rohit and Lizzie are currently helping us with Capsid & Tail: finding cool phage articles, jobs and anything else the phage community should know about. Thanks so much to each of you, we are incredibly grateful for your hard work and enthusiasm!
Also, we’d also like to acknowledge all of our Capsid & Tail guest writers and social media assistants we’ve had to date; these are all volunteers too!
Thank you to all of you for helping us keep our community informed and inspired!!
Seeking interviewees
Dr. Minmin Yen, PhagePro
We’re looking to explore the whole ecosystem of diarrheal disease prevention in low- and middle-income countries through short video interviews. We would particularly welcome those who are working on developing phage products in resource-limited settings. We’d love to hear your stories. Please get in touch by email ([email protected]) if you’re interested in talking to us (we’re looking to conduct interviews before April 10). Thank you for giving us your precious time, and we appreciate hearing your insights!
Seeking Mycobacterium phages
We have a cow we suspect has Johne’s disease (Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis infection). Does anyone have phages for this bacteria that might also infect M. smegmatis? Currently, there is no treatment; vaccine was discontinued in US and antibiotics would cost 50X the price of the cow. Normally you just cull the infected cattle and then need to test/monitor herd. So I figured being a phage researcher I might as well try… Please email [email protected].
Monash-UCSD Bacteriophage Symposium: Postponed
Jeremy Barr, Monash University
Hello everyone, due to the COVID-19 situation we will be postponing the Monash-UCSD Bacteriophage Symposium that was to be held in Melbourne on the 30th of March. We will instead explore online options and will update about this at a later date. Our apologies to all attendees.
In memory of Merry Youle
Merry Youle, author of Thinking Like A Phage, Life in our Phage World, blogger emerita for Small Things Considered, and beloved member of the phage community, has sadly passed away.
Seeking Phi6 and MS2 phages for research
Karen Kormuth, Bethany College
I’m hoping to use Phi6 and MS2 as a surrogate model system for studying infectious disease transmission. I previously worked at Pitt on influenza viruses, so I’m new to the phage community. Because we’re such a small college, I have an extremely limited budget and can’t afford to purchase the commercial phage. Are there any researchers out there who might be willing to share Phi6 and/or MS2 with my lab? Please contact me at [email protected] if you can help.
Boston PFU Meeting Postponed
Siân Owen, Harvard University
Hello everyone,
Due to pesky eukaryotic viruses, next week’s PFU meeting will be postponed. On the bright side, last week we received some funding from New England Biolabs to continue catering the meetings, so you can look forward to the resumption of PFU meetings with food and beers later in the year.
Stay sane,
Siân
VoM COVID Policy Announcement
Dear colleagues,
We are working towards the VoM2020, which is planned to take place on the 13-17 July, in the consideration that the situation will be solved by that occasion. The Organizing Committee is naturally closely monitoring the situation concerning COVID-19 through both the daily situation reports from the World Health Organization and the Portuguese Health Authorities.
If, in the unlikely situation the COVID-19 outbreak will not be solved in July, we may consider postponing the meeting but never cancelling it.
The dead-line for abstract submission will be extended to 30th March. Please visit our website www.vom2020.org
We look forward to welcoming you in Portugal in July 2020,
Joana & Madalena
On behalf of the organizing committee
Special Issue about phage therapy in “Microorganisms” Journal
Adelaide Almeida, University of Aveiro
The journal Microorganisms has a special phage issue open called “Bacteriophage Treatment as an Alternative Technology to Inactivate Pathogenic Bacteria: A Generalized Worldwide Growing Acceptance”. Guest editor: Prof. Dr. Adelaide Almeida, University of Aveiro, Portugal.
Boston PFU’s Second Meetup
The second meeting of Boston PFU (Phage Fanatics United) takes place March 19 at 5:30 pm at the Harvard Medical School Countway Medical Library. There will be food and two phage research talks (by Mia Liberman and Sian Owen). Doing phage work in the Boston area? Sign up for their Slack channel and mailing list here!
Q&A: making phage mutants
Important question: if I had a student who wanted to make an undomesticated bacteriophage mutant that could not make plaques, other than conditionally, is there a way other than bashing plaque isolates at two temperatures after random mutagenesis? — @markowenmartin
Check out responses, or add your own thoughts, via Twitter here!
Phage talks at the Global Virome in Health and Disease Keystone Symposium
The Global Virome in Health and Disease Keystone Symposium happened this week, and there were many phage talks! Check out the hashtag #ksvirome on Twitter to catch up. And in the spirit of openness, Rob Edwards (SDSU) made his crAssphage presentation for the event available online!
Special Issue in Antibiotics on phage therapy
The MDPI journal Antibiotics will publish a special issue on Phage Therapy: A biological Approach to Treatment of Bacterial Infections.
The deadline for manuscript submissions is 31 March 2020. The journal Impact factor is 2.921. Please see the link and contact Saija Kiljunen (via the link) for more information.
Phage Methods Q&A
What is the best way to search an assembled phage contig against human metagenome datasets? Regular blastn at NCBI doesn’t seem to include these, do we have to download the data to search locally or is there an online resource? — @jason_j_gill
SciPhage Crowdfunding Campaign
SciPhage is a women-led biotech company out of Colombia aiming to bring science into society and to support female scientists who want to start a biotech business. To get their Salmonella phage cocktail to market, they have announced a fundraiser through IFundWomen. Learn more about SciPhage and their fundraiser here.
A thank-you to the international phage community
7-year old Australian patient successfully treated with community-sourced phages
The staff of the Infectious Diseases and Orthopaedics departments of the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and the Westmead Institute for Medical Research Iredell lab (Westmead Bacteriophage Therapy Team, New South Wales, Australia) would like to thank the international phage community for their overwhelming generosity in 2019 when a request was made through Phage Directory for compassionate access to phage products to treat our young patient with chronic osteomyelitis of the foot due to a multi-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection.
Our patient was treated for two weeks with a single phage in October 2019 and tolerated the treatment well. There was symptomatic improvement following the completion of treatment and although she continues to be treated with intravenous antibiotics, the potential need for amputation is currently deferred. There are currently no plans for further courses of treatment with phage for this patient unless there is further clinical deterioration.
We would like to thank the phage contributors: Adaptive Phage Therapeutics, Ran Nir-Paz, Ronen Hazan, Rob Lavigne, Jeroen Wagemans, LyseNTech, Nikoline S Olsen, Witold Kot and Lars Hestbjerg Hansen.
PATRIC/RAST Bacterial and IRD/ViPR Viral Workshops
The new Bacterial-Viral BRC (BV-BRC), a collaboration between the PATRIC/RAST and IRD/ViPR teams, will be offering a joint bacterial and viral workshop from March 23 through 27 at Argonne National Laboratory in the suburbs of Chicago, IL.
The first 2.5 day section, Mar 23-Mar 25 Noon, will focus on bacterial data and analyses, using the PATRIC/RAST system: Draft Agenda.
The second 2.5 day section, Mar 25 Noon-Mar 27, will focus on viral data and analysis, using the IRD and ViPR systems: Draft Agenda.
Register here and direct questions to Lisa Hundley.
Missed Phage Futures last week? Catch up here
In case you missed it, last week, along with the help of Sabrina Green and Ella Balasa, we provided live coverage of Phage Futures Congress 2020. Find highlights on our website, and check out coverage on Twitter (#PhageFutures) and Instagram (we’re @phagedirectory on both platforms). And stay tuned for our full conference recap, coming soon.
Apply to host Viruses of Microbes 2022!
The Viruses of Microbes (VoM) conference is the official meeting of the International Society of Viruses of Microorganisms (ISVM). We are pleased to open the call for organizing the next VoM conference, to be held mid-2022.
Prospective organizers should first register by email to the ISVM secretary Tessa Quax. They will then receive an application form and a guidance to build the meeting budget. Complete application forms must be submitted by email by 30 April 2020.
Applications will be reviewed by the ISVM board and the selected organizers will be invited to present their application during the General Assembly of our Society on the upcoming VoM conference in July 2020 in Portugal. We welcome applications from researchers worldwide. Please note that we also welcome interest to organize the VoM meeting planned for mid-2024.
Best regards,
Corina Brussaard, President of ISVM (on behalf of the ISVM executive board)
In Memory of Jim Hu
Sadly, Dr Jim Hu, a founding member of the Center for Phage Technology at Texas A&M University, has passed away. He was great scientist, dedicated mentor, and valued member of CPT and TAMU. — Center for Phage Technology, Twitter
Jim was passionate about microbial genetics, the application of high throughput data and analysis tools to explore bacterial physiology, and the development of community-based resources. He also developed a two hybrid system for studying protein:protein interactions in E. coli, based on the phage lambda repressor. His warmth, wit, and friendship will be greatly missed.— Gail Christie, Phage Page, Facebook
Phage Methods Q&A: PEG precipitation
When doing a PEG precipitation of phages, some people (like me) use a PEG stock solution (20-30% w/v PEG in NaCl), whereas other people add the PEG powder directly to the sample.
What are the pros and cons? — @EvelienAdri
Second quarterly IPATH Newsletter
The Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH) at UCSD has published the second issue of its quarterly newsletter.
This issue describes the speaker series they hosted in 2019, which you can watch online, along with info about their upcoming phage therapy clinical trial (phase 2, cystic fibrosis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, phages given IV and nebulized).
Happy holidays — See you in the new year!
Merry Christmas! We’ll be taking a break from Capsid & Tail next week, but we’ll be back in the new year, starting with a reflection on 2019 and a look at where Phage Directory is headed in 2020!
P.S. If you’re interested in contributing a Capsid & Tail guest article in 2020, check out our guidelines and register your interest here!
Phage Directory visits Eastern Canada: a million thanks to all our hosts!
Thanks so much to Sylvain Moineau at Laval University, David Speicher at McMaster University, and Hany Anany at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for hosting us these last couple of weeks! It’s been fantastic to have the opportunity to present to your teams and departments on what we’ve been learning from the phage community, and what we’re working toward! And it’s been incredibly inspiring learning about your phage work, plans, ideas and progress. We can’t wait to come back!
Binomial nomenclature for virus species: a consultation
Bas Dutilh
We are thinking about making virus taxonomy more consistent with the rest of biology by introducing binomial species nomenclature. You know: genus name & species epithet. Do you have an opinion about this? Let us know: Paper | ICTV Public Forum | Tweet thread
Seeking phage proteomics protocol
Ael Hardy
Has anyone successfully performed proteomics (LC-MS) on whole phage particles (not bands from SDS-PAGE gels)?
Looking for alternative protocols as the one I have been trying has given me a hard time. — @ael_hardy, via Twitter
Seeking optimised protocol for isolation of phages from seawater samples
I am working on isolation and characterisation of marine phages for anti-bio fouling activity. Our lab has assessed the influence of chlorine on different marine microorganisms as well as barnacles, and now we are looking into use of marine bacteriophage therapy for targeting the biofilms involved in microfouling which leads to macrofouling.
I am optimising a protocol for isolation of phages from marine water samples, but somewhere I am making mistakes, leading to negative results. Could anyone please share their optimised protocol for isolation of bacteriophages from sea water samples? Until now I have used a protocol which includes dilution of filtered sea water with 2X culture broth and overnight grown pure culture, but I am looking for an alternate protocol.
Please email me at [email protected] if you can help.
PhD student seeking unpaid 3 month industry placement
Rebecca Quinn, University of Warwick
My name is Rebecca Quinn, I’m a PhD student at University of Warwick, researching phage genetics. I’m funded by the BBSRC, and under the direction of Dr Richard Puxty.
I have funding for a 3 month work placement/internship in Summer 2020 (there is date flexibility). The placement cannot be lab-based, but all other departments (HR, IT, marketing, etc) are suitable.
I have the right to work in the UK/EU, Canada, and the US and am location-flexible.
Please email me at [email protected] if you know of any opportunities! Thanks.
Seeking phage titration methods & help
Emmanuel Nnadi, Plateau State University
We have been attempting to get the titre of our phage but don’t seem to know where we are getting it wrong. What’s your preferred protocol? We use the double-layer plaque assay and a McFarlands standard 1.0 for the culture. If you would love to share your protocol you may wish to email me at [email protected].
Boston PFU (Phage Fanatics United) First Meetup!
The first meeting of Boston PFU (Phage Fanatics United) will be Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019 at the Countway Medical Library, Harvard Medical School. Find details and join the mailing list here! This is a social and general meeting, and is open to anyone interested in phages. Email [email protected] with any questions.
Seeking Post Doctoral Research Fellowship
My name is Dr. Adamu Kaikabo Ahmad, currently working at National Veterinary Research Institute Vom, Nigeria. I hold a degree in Veterinary Medicine, and Master degree in Veterinary Science. I obtained my PhD in Bacteriology and Food Safety in 2016. My PhD thesis was on phage therapy against colibacillosis in chickens, an infection caused by avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC). I’ve isolated and characterized numerous phages against E. coli, Riemerella anatipestifer, Aeromonas hydrophila. Looking for a postdoctoral position. Contact [email protected].
Boston phage meetup: gauging interest
Amelia McKitterick and Sian Owen, Boston, Massachussetts
Calling all phage enthusiasts in the Boston area! @implosian and I want to organize a meetup with other Boston phage peeps to share ideas and network etc. Trying to gauge interest, so let us know if you would want to participate!
Questions about E. coli and phages
Michelle Yang
How are strain B and UPEC strains of E. coli similar?
How do you select phages for a phage cocktail?
Please email me at [email protected].
Seeking postdoctoral position
Dr. Soleimani
I am seeking a research position in phage therapy or molecular phage studies. I hold a Ph.D from Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran (Department of microbiology and microbial biotechnology, faculty of life sciences and biotechnology).
My thesis was entitled “Isolation of a lytic bacteriophage effective against Multidrug-resistant (MDR) Klebsiella pneumoniae and the potential of phage therapy against infection in a mouse model” under the supervision of Prof. Fereshteh Eftekhar. During my Ph.D. project, I have experienced almost all the necessary techniques and methods for phage study, phage therapy and lung infection studies in animal models. I am looking for a postdoc or research scientist position. Please contact me at [email protected].
Seeking PhD position
I have a master’s degree in microbiology. I defended my thesis with the title of ‘Isolation and Identification of Specific Viruses Isolated from the Microbial Corroded Place in the Petroleum Industry’ with the best grade. The title of one of my articles that is published in Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials Journal is ‘Phage therapy of corrosion-producing bacterium Stenotrophomonas maltophilia using isolated lytic bacteriophages’.
I am keen to work in microbiology, bacteriophages (phage therapy) and biotechnology. Please email me at [email protected] if you are interested.
Seeking collaborators for phage characterization studies
Emmanuel Nnadi, Plateau State University, Bokkos, Nigeria
My lab started isolation of phages from hospital environment, so far we have isolated a phage effective against E.coli and working on phages against P. aeruginosa. As a small unfunded lab we are not able to characterize and store for very long because of electricity. So we are open to collaboration. Any lab willing to collaborate to store and characterize our phage and also open to further studies are welcome. Please email me at [email protected].
Looking to meet phage scientists, find companies offering EM services, and find out about phage conferences
Dr. Ritah Nakayinga, Kyambogo University, Uganda
Hello passionate phage scientists,
My name is Dr. Ritah Nakayinga and I will be starting phage research, early 2020, at Kyambogo University, Uganda. My research is funded by IDRC/OWSD. I will be developing an effective phage bio-control against the Banana wilt disease of the Banana crop and a major staple food crop in Uganda. I would like to network with phage scientists with similar research interests, get information about companies that offer affordable electron microscopy services and any upcoming future phage conferences in 2021. Reach me at: [email protected].
Seeking method for detecting HGT in sequenced genomes
Dr. Heather Hendrickson
Does anyone have a robust and reliable method that they like for auto detecting HGT in completely sequence genomes? I was playing with HGTecor last week but it seems to be broken. Help? —@DrHHNZ | Tweet thread
Seeking postdoctoral position
Dr. Pallavali Roja Rani
I am seeking a post-doctoral position related to Bacteriophage therapy, Antibiotic Resistance and Biofilm studies. The main objective of my Ph.D. thesis was to study the predominant bacterial isolates of septic wound infections, isolation and characterization of bacteriophages against biofilms of multi drug resistant P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, and E. coli, and application of respective bacteriophages and phage cocktails on the single & dual species biofilms of these predominant bacterial isolates of septic wound infections. Please email me at [email protected] if you know of any opportunities.
Welcome new Phage Directory members!
Between July 26 and Sep. 30, we welcomed:
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16 phage professionals
Ael Hardy, Anna Dragos, Cesar de la Fuente, Christine Thompson, Fatma Abdelrahman, Francesca Hodges, Geoffrey Hutinet, Hardian Susilo Addy, Jared Schlechte, Jonas Van Belleghem, Karen Weynberg, Ligia Ayala Navarrete, Milan Bunata, Nayeem Bari, Sam Nugen, Tim Blower. -
4 phage research labs
KeRis Terapi Bakteriofag, Blower Lab, Food Micro Lab, Nnadi Lab -
9 phage companies
Bacteriophage & Drug Development Consultants, Cellexus, Clean Cells, Jafral, MB Pharma, PhagoMed Biopharma, PhagePro, SciPhage, Vetophage.
How can I join the community?
Sign up here!
Invitation to submit to "Phage Diversity for Research and Application” issue of Antibiotics
Dr. Christine Rohde
I recently accepted to serve as Guest Editor for the Special Issue “Phage Diversity for Research and Application” of the journal Antibiotics. I would be very pleased if you agreed to contribute a research paper, or a comprehensive review on any research aspect related to phage diversity. The deadline for manuscript submissions is 1 June 2020. The articles will be published upon acceptance, on an ongoing basis.
Antibiotics is a peer-reviewed open access journal on all aspects of antibiotics. It has an impact factor of 2.921 and is indexed in SCIE (Web of Science), Scopus, and PubMed. The Article Processing Charge of 1200 CHF applies to all papers accepted after peer review.
In order for us to plan this Special Issue, we kindly ask you to inform us as to whether you are interested in contributing to this issue.
Many thanks,
Christine Rohde
Seeking job in phage research field
I am looking for jobs in the phage research field. I have almost fifteen years’ experience in phage research particularly on phage genomics and phage therapy in animal, insect and plant models. I have developed a phage based product. It is on the verge of commercialization now. Please contact me at [email protected] if you know any possible opportunities.
Seeking graduate research position
I am Ritam Das, a third year undergraduate student studying Life Sciences at Acharya Narendra Dev College, University of Delhi. I’ve been actively working at the Anti-Mycobacterial Drug Discovery Lab of our college under the guidance of Dr. Urmi Bajpai since December 2018, wherein I am trying to isolate, purify and characterize Mycobacteriophages and phage-derived proteins. Currently, I’m looking for graduate programs (Masters/Masters-PhD integrated) at institutes working on bacteriophages. I wish to apply as a full-time student and to associate myself with a lab to explore phages and phage-derived enzybiotics as credible alternatives to antibiotics. Please contact me at [email protected] if you know of possible opportunities.
Seeking community input on using multiple hosts to isolate phages
Anyone inoculate their samples for enriched isolation of phage with multiple hosts to save resources? —@BryanGibb2 | Tweet thread
Seeking graduate research position
I am Uchenna Precious Nnadi, a graduate of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I am looking for a graduate mentor that will accept to supervise me to develop into a fantastic phage researcher and to provide impactful research and skill to my local community and country, thereby enabling me to grow into a great scientist that will meet local and global issues that relates to health. Please contact me at [email protected] if you know of possible opportunities.
Seeking tips on imaging phage infection
Hoping to get some really cool #TEM images of cool #phages infecting #bacteria really soon. Anyone have any advice on imaging a phage infection? — @MotherOfPhage | Tweet thread
Seeking postdoctoral research opportunity
Dr. Kübra Can
I am seeking a research position in phage therapy or moleculer phage studies. I hold a PhD from Istanbul University (Institute of Health Sciences, Medical Microbiology Department).
I have strong experience in clinical microbiology, bacteriophage therapy and animal disease models. I am interested in clinical microbiology and crosstalk between organs in mouse models. I am also eager to learn and implement new methods and NGS data analysis for future studies.
Please contact me at [email protected]
Seeking research exchange opportunity
Fatma Abdelrahman
My name is Fatma Abdelrahman and I have BSc in Microbiology from the Faculty of Science, Zagazig University, Egypt. I’m currently a research assistant at the Center of Microbiology and Phage Therapy, Zewail City of Science and Technology, Egypt. My first paper about phage encapsulation is here.
I am looking forward to obtaining an internship or research visit in the fields of phage therapy, phage lysins, other phage-derived enzymes or related topics. I’m planning to pursue my master degree on these topics and I have chosen it to be my future research area.
If there are no fully funded research grants, there are several local institutions which can aid in providing adequate grants upon being accepted.
Please contact me at [email protected]
Seeking collaborators for in vivo lung infection studies
Dr. Swapnil Ganesh Sanmukh
I am Dr. Swapnil Ganesh Sanmukh, presently working on my postdoctoral project (funded my MSCA-COFUND) entitled “Isolation of bacteriophages and lytic enzymes for targeted treatment of chronic bacterial lung infections”. I am looking forward to have collaborations for in-vivo studies. Please email me at [email protected]
Community Q&A: Removing phages from liquid?
Question:
Hello phage people, does anyone have an improved method to physically remove #phages from liquid broth? Thank you! — @PetrovicFabijan
A subset of the answers to date:
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We use Amicon filters in my lab to concentrate phage and we’ve noticed that’s there’s a significant amount of phage in the filtrate with the 100 KDa membrane. To remove phage, a different cutoff might be more suitable. —@Z_Doust
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High protein binding 0.1 um filters —@raw9371
Check the tweet thread for more answers as they come in!
The Phage Page on Facebook
Have you checked out The Phage Page on Facebook? Run by Prof. Gail Christie of Virginia Commonwealth University, this page is a fantastic place to find phage news, research and commentary. We get lots of our “What’s New” articles from Gail’s fantastically-curated page! This week, there’s been an especially large number of news items posted!
New phage research What’s App group
Fatma Abdelrhman
Dear phage community,
I’ve created a What’s App group for scientists who work on phage and AMR, to gather them, benefit and share experience, knowledge, and research of phage worldwide. Please join and share the link (https://chat.whatsapp.com/F4gwFkwvHuxLXLuDtGGqLQ) if you like!
Community Q&A: Storing phages?
Question
Any advice on how to store phages/ viruses? I know there are quite a few methods for long-time storage but I’d like to hear your advice. Thanks!
😀 — @LeptihnLab
A few of the answers:
“Easiest way that our lab uses is to make a high titre lysate. You can clean this via ultra-centrifugation into SM buffer, and store long term at 4C. Option to add 0.1 volume chloroform if concerned about sterility. Most phages will keep for decades using this approach […] See our methods paper on this” — @JeremyJBarr
“Will depend on phage and phage-host system. -80 glycerol stocks of phage - needs testing for phage. Or -80 stock of cells that are infected .Or in SM buffer @ 4 if above dont work .Some phage are sensitive to this as well. Can ad CHCl3 to lystates for storage -check CHCl3 first!” — @milja001
“One thing we do is use a modified version of Graham Hatfull’s (@GHatfull) approach for BRED where we extract the genome with phenol chloroform. Can be used later to electroporate back into the host if the phage is unstable. Works good for med genomes <90kbp” — @Phage4Lyfe
Check the tweet thread for more replies as they come in!
Student project: Phage Field Expert Survey
Olympia Alvarez and Taehoon Ha
We are MPH graduate students from California State University, San Marcos, and this survey is for our capstone project on phage therapy. Due to the limited human clinical cases in the literature, we were advised to interview/survey phage experts in the field. The questions pertain to how/whether phage therapy is done in your area, and your thoughts and recommendations regarding phage therapy. We hope to collect responses between now and early/mid September.
Community Q&A: Extracting phage DNA from low titer lysate?
This week on #phagetwitter: “Anyone have a good protocol for DNA extractions from low titer phage lysates?” — @FazzinoLisa
Check out the thread for many helpful answers and links!
Seeking Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas phages for research
Noel-David Nogbou
Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University
Pretoria, South Africa
Hello, I am looking for Acinetobacter baumannii bacteriophages and Pseudomonas aeruginosa phage OMKO1. This is for a research project. If you can help, please contact me at [email protected]
Question about phage genome sequencing
Amna Mian
University of Lahore
Lahore, Pakistan
I want to sequence my phage genomes. Could someone tell me where to send, and about the cost? Please email me at [email protected] if you can help.
Community Q&A: Database of phage genomes for mapping / favorite mapping pipeline?
Here’s a great example of the phage community helping each other out on Twitter — thanks to Stephen Stockdale of APC Microbiome (@SteveStockyPhD) and Simon Roux of the Joint Genome Institute (@simroux_virus) for providing answers!
Here’s the question:
Does anyone know of a database of (putative) phage genomes that you can map reads against? Or your favorite pipeline for mapping reads to a set of references/contigs? Bonus points if it’s easy to use for people who don’t like coding (that’s me)! — @ElysianTweets
The answers (so far):
If you are not comfortable downloading viral RefSeq, there is the complete reference viral database (RVDB) — @SteveStockyPhD
Or Andrew Millard’s group @milja001 have an easy to download database — @SteveStockyPhD
Or if you would like easy to download crAss-like phage sequences — @SteveStockyPhD
If you have access to a server that will run alignments and process output (using Bowtie2 and Samtools), but are not comfortable with coding, I can send you some commands. — @SteveStockyPhD
And for mapping reads to genomes without the need to code, we have iVirus on @CyVerseOrg, with full protocols courtesy of Ben Bolduc from @Lab_Sullivan. — @simroux_virus
If you get help from someone in the phage community, or you see an example like this, send it to [email protected] — we’d love to feature it here!
Seeking phage research opportunity
Mahsa Yazdi Gorgan, Iran
I recently graduated with a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Isfahan, Iran. My thesis was entitled “Isolation and characterization of lytic bacteriophages against some of the most common bacterial causes of urinary tract infections” under the supervision of Prof. Majid Bouzari. During my Ph.D. project, I learned almost all the necessary techniques and methods for phage study and gained useful experience in phages and phage therapy. I currently work as an independent researcher at the Department of Microbiology, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran. I am looking for a postdoc or research scientist position to pursue my interest in phages and related topics. Please email me at [email protected] if you have any openings or would like to discuss further!
PhD student seeking a phage lab for a funded 1-month internship
Ibtihadj Souda Constantine, Algeria
I am Ibtihadj Souda, a PhD student at the University of Constantine 1 in Algeria working on isolation and characterization of new bacteriophages from wastewater in the Sahara Desert of Algeria (North Africa). Recently, I have been offered a fully funded scholarship from our university (to cover travel and accommodation), so I have an opportunity to spend a one-month internship at a laboratory to do molecular characterisation of the phages we have isolated. I would like to observe my phages by transmission electron microscopy and perform genome sequencing. The location of the lab can be anywhere, and the timing of the visit can be anytime from June-Dec 2019, but I need to submit an invitation letter by June 30, so I need to find a host lab as soon as possible. Please email me at [email protected] and we can discuss details! Thank you!
Phage meetups and talks at ASM Microbe this weekend!
San Francisco, California
Phage Meetups
- Friday, June 21, 5-6:30 PM: Division M phage meeting and award ceremony (Division M is the bacteriophage division of ASM); there will be food, drink and phage; room 306/307/308 South
- Sunday, June 23, 5:30 PM: Adair Borges and others in the Bondy-Denomy lab are organizing an informal gathering for phage enthusiasts at a brewery near the conference venue (location TBA)! RSVP by commenting on Adair’s tweet.
Phage Talks
For more, check out (and add to) this Twitter thread!
- Carski Award Lecture: Dr. Louise Temple (Saturday, 3:30 PM, S206, room 2018 West)
- Dr. Paul Turner (Friday, 8:30 AM)
- Dr. Graham Hatfull on SEA-PHAGES (Saturday, noon, S167)
- Bacteriophage defense in the era of CRISPR (Sunday, 8:00 AM, S287)
Seeking a guest blogger!
If you’re attending ASM Microbe, we’re looking for a phage researcher to write a guest post for Capsid & Tail about insights/impressions from the conference! Email [email protected] if you’re interested, and we’ll send you more info! Looking for a draft to be written by mid-July.
Seeking T4 and T7 phage
Ednner Emmanuel Victoria Blanco Panama City, Panama
I am seeking samples of T4 and T7 phage for research. Please email me at [email protected] if you can help. Thank you!
Seeking review articles on phage endolysins
Fazal Mehmood Khan Wuhan, China
I am looking for recommended review articles on phage endolysins. Please send them to [email protected]. Thank you!
Seeking references for phage gene loss/genetic drift
Ellie Jameson
Can anyone help find a reference for gene loss and genetic drift in lab grown phage isolates? I’m sure there must be something published but my search terms aren’t hitting the right publications. (Reply or check out the responses to date on Twitter here).
Seeking Propionibacterium freudenreichii phages
Paulina Deptula Copenhagen, Denmark
Does anyone have access to phages infecting Propionibacterium freudenreichii? I’m trying to isolate my own, but in the meantime I’d like to start testing defence systems with any phage I can get. Please email me at [email protected]!
Seeking groups who work with Legionella phages
Steffanie Strathdee San Diego, California
Looking for #phage against #Legionella, in anticipation of an urgent request for #Phagetherapy for a patient in #HongKong whose family reached out @IPATH. If you have #bacteriophage against any Legionella strains, please DM me on Twitter at @chngin_the_wrld.
Seeking Vibrio natriegens phages
Mya Breitbart St. Petersburg, Florida
Looking for a lytic #phage capable of infecting Vibrio natrigens (for lab research, not therapy) - can anyone help? Needs to infect well in liquid culture, preferably a myovirus but any dsDNA phage will work. Please message me on Twitter at @virome_girl.
Seeking groups who work with Legionella phages
Clark Tibbs Newark, Ohio
Ohio Department of Health director Amy Acton issued an order to the Mount Carmel Grove City hospital on May 31 to take immediate action to contain an outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease. If anyone knows of anyone working with Legionella phages, please get in touch with Clark Tibbs at [email protected].
Register now for the 2019 Evergreen Phage Bioinformatics Workshop
Betty Kutter & Evergreen Organizers Olympia, WA
The 2019 Evergreen Phage Bioinformatics Workshop will consist of three tracks: Genomics with Galaxy & WebApollo; Genomic annotation with PATRIC; and Viromics (metaviromics). Participants are invited to register for one of these tracks on Saturday (4 PM – 9PM, 4h of work, with a break for supper), and/or for one of these as repeated on Sunday (8:30 to- 12:00, 3 ½ h). Each track will consist of an introductory lecture followed by hands-on sessions where participants can work on example datasets.
Observers are also welcome in each of the 3 sessions. (Note: Participants need to work on their own laptops; no computers will be provided.
We will plan on having a van pool for people arriving Saturday morning. For people taking part in the Saturday workshop, there will be an extra $10 fee from Evergreen for using their facilities.
The 3 tracks are:
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Genomics – Annotation: with PATRIC (Ramy Aziz & PATRIC people): Phage annotation using RAST and PATRIC. This track is suitable for beginners.
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Genomics - Phage genomics: with Galaxy and WebApollo (Jason Gill): This track will cover the start-to-finish process of whole-phage genomics, including DNA sequencing, assembly, end determination, annotation, and comparative genomics using the user-friendly interfaces Galaxy and WebApollo. This is suitable for both beginner and intermediate users. There will be a limited number of participants for people doing their own genomes, but the 2 hour lecture is open to all, the hand-on portion can handle about 15 people working on their own genomes.
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Viromics – (Alejandro Reyes & Evelien Adriaenssens): introduction to sequence pre-processing, clean-up, and assembly using command-line tools; visualization of data. Suitable for users who know how to navigate a command-line environment.
Register here for the Genome Workshops!
And if you haven’t yet registered for the Evergreen phage conference itself (Aug 4-9), register here!
Seeking soil samples for phage isolation
College Station, Texas
Howdy phage enthusiasts! The Center for Phage Technology is currently seeking out new environmental soil and water samples for phage isolation! Direct message the CPT on Twitter if there’s something you’d like to send! We’ll cover shipping and can even send you a kit to get started! #phage #science #savingtheworld #CitizenScience
IBRC Community Update: New web design, a documentary, and new members welcome!
The IBRC portal is inspired by the global antibiotic resistance situation & the promising potential phages offer as credible antimicrobial therapeutics.
Launched in October 2018, IBRC is a joint effort by Acharya Narendra Dev College (ANDC), University of Delhi, India and Open Health Systems Laboratory (OHSL), USA to build a consortium of scientists working on phages and lysins.
If you’re a phage scientist/scholar, a medical or industry professional, or a phage therapy supporter interested in joining the consortium, contact Dr. Urmi Bajpai at [email protected] or at [email protected], or tweet @phageconsortium.
To help promote AMR awareness, and prior to launching the IBRC, Dr. Bajpai created a short docu-drama film on AMR and phage therapy (10 min), which will be soon dubbed in other languages too. In it, you’ll hear from Pranav Johri of Vitalis Phage Therapy and Mzia Kutateladze, the director of Eliava Institute.
Seeking temperature-inducible P22 prophage
Glasgow, UK
Phage community, I need your help! I’m desperate looking for a P22 prophage that is inducible by temperature (P22 ts c2 29). It was published more than 50 years ago. If you know somebody that could have it, please, contact me at [email protected]! If not, please pass it on! It is really important! Thanks!
(Check out his twitter thread (@jrpenades) to see responses so far, or to add yours!)
Seeking phage typing collections
I’m looking for phage typing collections of Enterobacteriaciae (eg. E. coli, Klebsiella, Salmonella) to pursue capsular variant-phage type correlation studies. Please email me at [email protected] or tweet @mkoeris to get in touch!
Seeking collaborator for phage and host sequencing
Irshad Ul Haq, PhD, Assistant Professor,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
We are seeking help/collaboration on phage and host sequencing. We don’t have any resources to do the sequencing of these, and therefore would like to connect with someone who would want to collaborate. Please email me at [email protected].
Thank you to participants of the 2019 Latin America Phage Workshop
Ednner Emmanuel Victoria Blanco
Thank you to all the students from Latin America for participating in this 2019 phage course, and special thanks to Martin Loessner and Alejandro Reyes for the amazing lectures and workshop. Hope to see you all soon!
Welcome, new volunteers!
We have our first Phage Directory volunteer! Cathy Nguyen will be helping with Capsid & Tail’s What’s New and Jobs section. We also welcome our first guest writer this week, Lucy Furfaro!
If you’d like to help (or be kept up to date on other volunteer opportunities), email [email protected]. If you’d like to contribute a guest article, email [email protected] for details.
Seeking Pseudomonas phages for a canine ear infection
Miami Beach, Florida
We are seeking Pseudomonas aeruginosa phages to treat a dog’s antibiotic-resistant ear infection. Please get in touch with us by email at [email protected] if you are willing to test your phages on the dog’s strain, or to send phages on behalf of this dog.
Many thanks for helping with the seaturtle
On New Year’s Eve, we got a request for Citrobacter phages to treat a sea turtle’s antibiotic-resistant shell infection. If you can help, please email [email protected]!
Update:
THANK YOU to the labs of @GroseLab of BYU, @RandallJDeJong and @insectmicrobejr of Calvin College, @phage4lyfe of MSU, @BryanGibb2 of NYIT, and Ben Chan of Yale for offering to supply/test phages so far!
Thanks also to @chngin_the_wrld and @phagehunter of @ipath_ucsd for helping coordinate efforts!
Lastly, thanks to the 200+ people on Twitter who’ve helped spread the word about this turtle to 20,000+ people and counting!
Seeking collaborators and guidance for phage research
Raniero Lorenzetti
Rome, Italy
Our group is looking to begin isolating and characterizing phages, first against fish pathogens, mainly at the molecular level. In the future, we will seek to exploit phages to control many animal pathogens. We are seeking help and support from phage experts during the learning curve process. I would also be very grateful if a phage lab could host me as a visiting scientist for a few days, to help me get acquainted with the process of phage manipulation. Please contact me at [email protected] to talk about this further.
Seeking environmental samples for phage hunts!
Steffanie Strathdee
San Diego, CA
Want to help #phagetherapy patients? Our collaboration between @IPATH & @TAMU_CPT needs environmental samples for #phagehunts! You can help by sending soil samples to @TAMU_CPT. Message Steffanie Strathdee (@chngin_the_wrld) on Twitter for details and may the #phage be with you! #AMR #superbugs #AntibioticResistance
Seeking postdoctoral opportunity in medical microbiology / phage therapy
Prasanth Manohar
I have completed my Ph.D. at Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India. My research project deals with the characterization of bacteriophages infecting E. coli, K. pneumoniae and Enterobacter species. I have expertise in working with carbapenem-resistant clinical bacteria and studying the antibacterial activity of phages in vivo. In the future, I am looking forward to do my post-doctoral research in the field of Medical Microbiology, especially phage therapy. Please email me at [email protected] if you know of opportunities!
Seeking tips on how to isolate P. larvae phages
Heather Hendrickson
Auckland, New Zealand
Phage Friends! We need help! We have processed over 300 soil samples looking for phages on Paenibacillus larvae… (the bee pathogen) here in NZ. Have you ever looked SO HARD for a phage and not found one? Suggestions? Ideas? Sympathy? PLEASE? (Bonus: check out all the tips the phage community has already shared via Twitter!)
Update: Citrobacter phages for sea turtle
We are still seeking Citrobacter phages to treat a sea turtle’s antibiotic-resistant shell infection. If you can help, please email [email protected]!
Progress so far:
Good news! At least one phage active against the turtle’s Citrobacter strain has been found, and the FDA has given its approval to proceed with getting phages ready for this case.
Seeking collaborators and guidance for new phage therapy center
Gunaraj Dhungana
Kathmandu, Nepal
My name is Gunaraj Dhungana, I’m a Ph.D scholar from the central Department of Biotechnology, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. We have been working on the characterization and preparation of a phage bank to establish a phage therapy centre in Nepal. We are seeking collaborations and guidance to establish the centre. Please email me at [email protected] if you are willing to offer advice or would like to talk about collaborating.
Seeking PhD opportunity
Silviane Miruka
I am a student seeking a PhD opportunity in a phage lab. I recently did a project for my master’s thesis titled “Molecular Detection of Pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus Using Phage Based Genetic Markers.” Please email me at [email protected] or find me on Twitter @m_silviane if you know of any opportunities.
Seeking PhD opportunity
Mahmuda Akter
I have been working at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) and earned my M.S. degree from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh. I was awarded joint funding from icddr,b and SIDA to isolate and characterize Shigella phages. I have isolated more than 100 Shigella phages, characterized their host ranges and sequenced some of these in collaboration with Martha Clokie and Nathan Brown. I have 10 publications as a co-author and have shared my data at two international meetings: VoM (2012) and Evergreen (2015). Please email me at [email protected] if you know of opportunities.
Seeking micropipette donations
Tobi Nagel
Oakland, CA
Hi phage community! Do you have any old micropipettes that you’re ready to get rid of? If so, Phages for Global Health regularly needs micropipette donations for our laboratory training workshops in Africa. We could use any sizes 10 - 1000 uL. Please email me if you have any donations or questions: [email protected].
Seeking help with phage genome bioinformatics
Gunaraj Dhungana
Kathmandu, Nepal
My name is Gunaraj Dhungana, I’m a Ph.D scholar from the central Department of Biotechnology, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. We have sequenced the whole genome of four lytic phages against carbapenem-resistant and colistin resistant clinical isolates like Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Salmonella spp and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by next-generation sequencing using Illumina platform. I am searching for help/advice/mentorship with the bioinformatic analysis of sequenced data. Please email me at [email protected].
Seeking complete phage genome sequences with lytic/lysogenic labels
Piotr Tynecki
I’m working on a deep learning-based analysis of phage genomes considering their lytic/lysogenic potential. I’m looking for complete phage genome sequences in FASTA format with lytic/lysogenic labels that have been confirmed by domain experts. Email Piotr at [email protected] or tweet @ptynecki if you can help!
Seeking diverse Salmonella phages
Sian Owen
Cambridge, MA
I’m a postdoc at Harvard Medical School researching a novel phage-immunity system in Salmonella enterica sv. Typhimurium. I’m looking for characterised (and ideally genome sequenced/published) phages infecting S. Typhimurium to test against the system. So far I have the phages P22, BTP1, det7, 9NA and FelixO1, but I would really like some more diverse Salmonella phages, particularly those that adsorb to non-LPS receptors. Note: other collaborators in this project are located in the UK, so I am looking for people who could send phages to either the US or the UK. Email Sian at [email protected] if you can help!
Welcome to Phage Directory, new labs!
Check out the 17 new labs we just added to Phage Directory! We just made our signup process faster, so if you’ve thought about signing up your lab, now’s the time!
Seeking PhD opportunity
Muhammad Akmal
I am Muhammad Akmal, working as a Lecturer at the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan since July 2014, where I also received my Bachelors and Masters degrees in Fisheries and Aquaculture. I am now pursuing a second Masters in Fisheries Science at Pukyong National University, South Korea (ends Feb. 2019). Previously I worked on isolation and characterization of fish pathogenic Aeromonas hydrophila for the possible control of motile aeromonas septicemia in fish. Now I am searching for a PhD position in phage therapy-related aquaculture. I am open to any available opportunity where I can learn more about the phage therapy, especially in control of disease in aquaculture. Please email Rana at [email protected] if you know of any opportunities.
Seeking Citrobacter phages for a sea turtle
On New Year’s Eve, we got a request for Citrobacter phages to treat a sea turtle’s antibiotic-resistant shell infection. If you can help, please email [email protected]!
Update:
THANK YOU to the labs of @GroseLab of BYU, @RandallJDeJong and @insectmicrobejr of Calvin College, @phage4lyfe of MSU, @BryanGibb2 of NYIT, and Ben Chan of Yale for offering to supply/test phages so far!
Thanks also to @chngin_the_wrld and @phagehunter of @ipath_ucsd for helping coordinate efforts!
Lastly, thanks to the 200+ people on Twitter who’ve helped spread the word about this turtle to 20,000+ people and counting!
Community Board Intro
Have a question or request for the phage community? Post it here and reach > 200 phage enthusiasts spanning academia, industry, medicine, and beyond. Feel free to be creative about what you might ask! (e.g. collaborations, advice, seeking opportunities)
Seeking opinions: What makes a characterized bacteriophage?
I wish to find out from phage biologists on this platform what they would like to see in terms of metadata as a minimum for a characterised bacteriophage?
Any comments can be sent to @AgendiaJuandem on twitter. Thanks
An update on last week’s Phage Alert
Phage Directory
Last week, we sent an urgent alert for phages on behalf of a patient in Finland with ESBL E. coli. The phage hunt was initiated by Mikael Skurnik and his lab at the University of Helsinki (read a nice profile on the Skurnik Lab’s phage therapy work here).
In the week since we sent the alert, we’ve already had 12 additional labs from 9 countries offer to provide or test phages. MANY thanks to all who have contributed to date! The Skurnik group (especially Saija Kiljunen) is working hard to ship out the patient’s isolate to these labs, and in some cases shipments have already been received!
Thanks so much to:
- Mikael Skurnik and Saija Kiljunen / University of Helsinki (Finland; Original requesting team)
- Ronen Hazan / Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel)
- Heejoon Myung / Bacteriophage Bank of Korea (South Korea)
- Adelaide Almeida / University of Aveiro (Portugal)
- Emmanuel Nnadi / Plateau State University (Nigeria)
- Austen Terwilliger / BCM Tailor Labs (USA)
- Julianne Grose / Brigham Young University (USA)
- Christophe Chatain / Vetophage (France)
- Milan Bunata / MB Pharma (Czechia)
- Boris Estrada / Fagenbank (Netherlands)
- Lone Brondsted (Denmark)
- Hedieh Attai / IPATH (USA)
- Daniela Dias / Technophage (Portugal)
Thank you also to the colleagues of the above; we’ve listed one person from each lab/organization, but of course they are not the only ones key to this effort. We appreciate all who take part in this important work!
There’s still time to get involved; reach out to [email protected] if you can help.
I am an enthusiastic beginner of phage research and a PhD holder in virus immunodiagnostics. Since phage research is quite new in my country, Kenya, I am looking for mentorship from a senior phage researcher and placement in an active phage lab where I can learn phage techniques. Thanks! Email: [email protected]
We’re excited to announce that we’ve been awarded a grant from the Mozilla Foundation in partnership with Phages for Global Health (PGH), a nonprofit organization that facilitates the application of antibacterial phage technology in the developing world.
This grant will support the digitization of PGH’s hands-on phage workshop teaching materials. During this time when PGH is unable to deliver in-person workshops due to the coronavirus pandemic, this online resource should be especially valuable, and we are grateful to the Mozilla Foundation for their timely support!
Phage Directory has started building a website for the course, and PGH’s workshop instructors will soon be depositing lecture videos, laboratory demonstration videos, experimental protocols, scientific papers on phage topics, and frequently asked questions. All of this material will be freely available to anyone in the world, and we are designing the website so that it will be more easily accessible to people in resource-limited countries where internet bandwidth is often reduced.
We plan to launch this online resource in December — stay tuned! (Read more in PGH’s newsletter here!)
The next (and last) KITP Bacteriophage Forum Zoom session will be Sept 1 at noon Pacific time: Dr. Britt Koskella (UCB) will present on “Phages as drivers of bacterial diversity” followed by a general discussion session.
The Indian ‘Society for Bacteriophage Research and Therapy’ (SBRT) is a platform for phage researchers to share their expertise & resources. SBRT is pleased to announce a webinar on “Phage Directory: Making the world’s phages accessible, manageable and shareable” by Dr. Jessica Sacher and Jan Zheng, founders of Phage Directory. The directory was created in 2017 with an aim to develop the technological infrastructure to support an ever-expanding global collection of well-characterized phages curated by phage researchers. The mission of this independent, dynamic two-person organization is to assist in phage therapy and biocontrol by empowering the global phage community to access, use and build upon the world’s phage knowledge.
Please join us on 03 September (Thursday), 2020 at 8.30 pm IST/11 am EDT. We look forward to your participation. Register here!
Fantastic turnout for the first Africa Phage Forum webinar this week — thanks to the ~70 attendees who were there, and thanks to Dr. Paul Turner who gave a thought-provoking talk and extensive Q&A!
Sign up for future Africa Phage Forum events here. Next speaker: Dr. Evelien Adriaenssens on Feb 15, who will speak about: Basics of phage genome annotation and classification - how to get started.
There will soon be an Africa Phage Forum YouTube channel where talks will be posted — stay tuned! Also, join their What’s App to keep up.
We had a great time kicking off PHAVES for 2021 this week — thanks to everyone who attended! We had an awesome casual chat with phage researchers around the world, heard about what people are working on, what they’re proud of from 2020, and what they’re excited about for next year! The new casual format was a big hit, so we’ll likely be hosting more of these this year.
Let us know your thoughts, or if you have suggestions on other ways we can experiment with the virtual medium, or would like to recommend a speaker for this year!
Next week is Phage Futures 2021 (Feb 24-26)! Jessica and Jan of Phage Directory will be there, along with two dedicated social media assistants, Curtis Hoffmann and Atif Khan, to help keep you all in the loop via Twitter! (Another of our volunteers, Steph Lynch, will be in attendance too!)
And on day 1 of the conference, Jessica will moderate a panel on translation of in vitro phage results to in vivo, and understanding phage pharmacology. Panelists will be Dr. Paul Turner, Dr. Bob Blasdel, and Dr. Martha Clokie. Beyond this there will be tons more — hope to see many of you there!
Register and get 10% off with code PD10!
phageSuisse is hosting its second webinar on March 2nd at 20h00 CET on “Temperate bacteriophages and the evolution of the Staphylococcus aureus lineage 398” by Dr. Floriane Laumay from Geneva, Switzerland. Register here!
PHAVES #17 will be May 18, 5pm CEST (Paris time). Quentin Lamy-Besnier, a PhD student in the Debarbieux lab at the Institut Pasteur in Paris will present their team’s newly launched Viral Host Range Database, an online tool for recording, analyzing and disseminating virus-host interactions.
Come learn from Quentin how to use this much-needed new tool for the phage community! Small group networking to follow.
Register for this talk and others in the PHAVES series at https://seminars.phage.directory!
Thanks to everyone who attended two exciting forums we helped co-host this week! Yesterday we had ‘Phage Therapy UK: Moving toward clinical trials’, which brought tons of fruitful conversations among phage-interested medical professionals, health policy experts and phage experts from the UK and beyond! If you attended, we’d love your feedback!
And today we had the third rendition of the African Phage Forum, which began with a talk led by Dr. Jesca Nakavuma from Makerere University in Uganda, and turned into an interactive discussion about how phage researchers in Africa can progress and get funding for their work! We’ll share recordings of both seminars soon!
Whenever we can, we publish recordings of our events on our YouTube channel here — subscribe to get notified: https://phage.directory/youtube!
And if you’re part of this wonderful phage community, interested in hosting an online event or webinar series, and want someone else to take care of the technical aspects (managing registration system, event website, advertising the event, invitations, Zoom room management and tech support), Phage Directory is happy to partner with you and your team! Let Jessica or Jan know and we can chat about what you’re envisioning and how we can help.
Update from the PhageAI crew:
We’re proud to announce to you the release of PhageAI 0.8.0: extended repository and two new features: closest phages and Expert form!
What’s new:
- uploading your sample and discovering top-10 closest phages in a global repository (alignment-free sequence comparison);
- possibility of use an Expert form to share details about in silico analysis of phage life cycle if you are Expert user;
- more than 22 000 publicly available bacteriophage genomes with their updated characteristics (lifecycle, taxonomy, hosts, similarities);
- bug fixes and performance improvements based on your feedback.
Check it out at https://phage.ai
Thanks to all those who attended PHAVES #17 this week, where Quentin Lamy-Besnier, a PhD student in the Debarbieux lab at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, presented their team’s newly launched Viral Host Range Database, an online tool for recording, analyzing and disseminating virus-host interactions. Here’s the recording if you missed it, or want it for reference!
Register for future PHAVES seminars at https://seminars.phage.directory!
Sabrina Green (Baylor College of Medicine, Australia) has created a Facebook group Phage Phridays at Clubhouse. Join the group to get updates on exciting phage-related talks from phage researchers every Friday, and to catch recordings of past Clubhouse chats! Start with last week’s chat with Dr. Joe Bondy-Denomy about anti-CRISPRs!
Thanks so much to those who signed up for Instill Science since we launched last week! For those who missed it, read about our new peer feedback matching initiative here!
We’re thrilled to have the community’s support as we get going on this; if you signed up, you’ll hear from us soon with next steps! And if you’d like to join the movement, whether you want to improve the impact of your phage research, or have specific expertise you’d like to share with others in the community, we’d love to bring you on board!
Have a specific question about your in-progress manuscript that you think someone in the phage community could answer? Want to get advice on whether you should shoot for a higher journal?
Tired of manually counting plaques on petri dishes? Harness the power of AI to count plaques in near real-time with OnePetri, an automated plaque counting iOS app. Here’s a short clip of the app in action.
I am looking for beta testers to help test OnePetri before publishing the app for free, alongside its source code, next month. If you have a device running iOS 13 or newer, please fill out this form to register for beta access and start saving time with OnePetri! Questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out by email: [email protected] .
Looking forward to sharing some more news in the weeks ahead! — Michael Shamash (McGill University)
I observed lysis plaques all over ATCC P. aeruginosa 27853 soft agar overlay prepared from overnight bacterial cultures. The bacterial strain is reported to contain prophage sequences in its genome. ATCC website also mentions that phage may be present in the culture. Could it be prophage induction (maybe due to stress conditions from high cell densities or spontaneous?) or phage contamination? Please email [email protected] if you can help!
The FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research and NIH’s NIAID have announced a public workshop entitled “Science and Regulation of Bacteriophage Therapy.”
The purpose of the public workshop is to exchange information with the medical and scientific community about the regulatory and scientific issues associated with phage therapy. It will run Aug 30-Sep 1, and is free to attend. Sessions will include choosing and characterizing phages for therapy, manufacturing for stability and clinical use, using phages clinically, and research gaps that remain.
There’s still time to register for Evergreen!
Sign up here to be part of the longest running phage meeting.
Phagebiotics Research Foundation and Phage Directory present the 24th biennial Evergreen International Phage Meeting August 2-5th 2021. This year you can participate in person or virtually. The meeting will include primary session talks, live and virtual poster sessions, daily flash talks and Q&A for all participants.
As always, we look forward to hearing about all the exciting phage work going on worldwide!
Thanks to our sponsors, Phagebiotics and TAILOR! Want to sponsor Evergreen? There’s still time!
The 24th Biennial Evergreen International Phage Meeting is coming up in a few days (Aug 2-5, plus workshop days on Aug 1 and 6)!
The schedule is up on https://evergreen.phage.directory if you’d like to check it out! And it’s not too late to register if you’re still interested in attending! (This is a hybrid meeting, so you can attend either online or in-person!)
This iconic meeting is organized and hosted, as always, by Betty Kutter and her amazing entourage of Evergreen phage enthusiasts, past and present. Phage Directory is proud to help support the online aspect of the meeting. And of course, a huge shoutout to the sponsors of Evergreen this year, who’ve helped make it a reality in this challenging year: PhageBiotics Research Foundation, TAILOR Labs, and JAFRAL!
Looking forward to seeing many of you very soon!
Hello everybody! I was wondering if someone has on their collection or knows someone that has the phiCTX phage from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. I am looking for a cos-type phage in PA and it seems that’s one of the few well characterised.
— Rodrigo Ibarra Chavez (via Phage Directory Slack)
PhReD Database is relaunching!
The Phage Receptor Database (PhReD) compiles receptors involved in phage-host recognition.
We are proud to have partnered with the Bio-conversion Databank Foundation (BioDF) to relaunch and continuously improve PhReD. Many new and improved features have been added, including:
- a visual filter search feature
- over 560 receptors included (and counting)
- over 560 phages included (and counting)
- over 80 different hosts included (and counting)
- exportable data tables
- you can contribute your own receptors to the database
You can access PhReD through the BioDF portal at: https://portal.bio-conversion.org
— Dominic Sauvageau, University of Alberta
Volta Labs is automating Next Generation Sequencing sample prep (for Illumina, Oxford Nanopore and Pac Bio). They recognize that increasing the throughput (and lowering the cost) of sequencing will become critical to the phage field moving forward, so they’re eager to talk to researchers who can give feedback on their proposed system. Watch a video on their disruptive fluidic system technology here. If you’re open to providing some feedback to the Volta team, reach out to Nick at [email protected].
We had so much fun with you all at the ‘Phage Phun’ sessions at Evergreen, that we’ve decided to incorporate these at the end of each month for the phage community at large! We will announce the first one soon!
Phage Phun: informal, self-serve breakout rooms, where you can hop between topic-based rooms and meet new phage phriends! At Evergreen we had rooms like ‘Catching up with phriends’, ‘Phage Therapy’, ‘Troubleshooting: bring a problem, get a solution’, ‘Phage in the Phield’ and more… (clearly there are bonus points if you can make the ‘Ph’ work for yours…). We can also accommodate specific subject matter rooms, like ‘RNA seq analysis’ (because talking science is super phun too!).
If you’ve got a suggested room title/subject (whether serious or silly!), send them to [email protected] anytime!
Thanks so much to all who joined us for our very first Phage Phun hour this week! We’ll be hosting these monthly, at alternating times (9AM Pacific, then 3PM Pacific, repeating) on the last Wednesday of each month! Next month will be Wed, Sept 29 at 3PM Pacific! Register here! (If you’re already signed up for the PHAVES series or a past Phage Phun, no need to register again; we’ll send you the link closer to the date).
For PHAVES #21, Aël Hardy, PhD student at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany, will give a talk entitled ‘Molecular multitasking: inhibition of phage infection by aminoglycoside antibiotics’ on September 7 at 6PM CEST! Register here! (If you’re already signed up for the PHAVES series, no need to register again; we’ll send you the link closer to the date).
Join Instill, a platform that facilitates collaboration and mentorship amongst the phage community.
Collaborator requests on Instill are seeking help with:
- Phage genome annotation — Help Marwan M. Saleh
- Use of CIRCOS for generation of a circular phage genome map — Help Noutin Fernand Michodigni
- TEM analysis of phages from Ethiopia — Help Stephen Amankwah
Not long left to submit abstracts to the virus & mobile genetic elements session at #AbSciCon22 (May 15-20 in Atlanta, GA). You can present in-person or virtually. Invited speaker Dr. Rachel Whitaker will discuss "Epidemics of Gene Flow in Hot Spring Meta-Populations”.
IPATH invites the phage therapy community to the virtual screening and discussion event for the new documentary, Salt in My Soul. This film recounts the struggles and feelings of Mallory Smith, who lost her battle with cystic fibrosis and a rare superbug infection in November 2017. (Her story was the inspiration for Phage Directory!)
You’ll get a link Jan 25th to stream the film at your convenience, before the panel event on February 1st (4:00 PM - 5:00 PM PST) on Zoom.
The panel will feature Diane Shader Smith, the film’s director Will Battersby, Dr. Doug Conrad, and IPATH’s Drs. Robert Schooley, Saima Aslam, and David Pride, moderated by IPATH Co-Director, Dr. Steffanie Strathdee.
Phages for Global Health invites scientists from anywhere in Africa, whether or not you have previously attended our workshops, to fill out this survey about your ongoing phage work or any aspirations for future phage-related activities.
PGH will use this information to both understand how phage work has continued to evolve on the continent and to connect African phage researchers with international collaborators who can help with activities such as DNA sequencing or microscopic (TEM) analysis of phages, as well as provide mentoring on specific topics.
In an effort to help companies navigate the development of their bacteriophage product, IHMA’s VP Global Microbiology Services & CSO, Daniel Sahm has compiled a summary of key considerations to address prior to beginning clinical trials.
Thanks to all who came out to the first iVoM Season 2 event of 2022!
Next: Feb 2 from 2-3 PM CET
Topic: Phage application in the One Health approach.
Speakers: Dr. Cath Rees, Prof. Mariana Piuri, Prof. Lone Brøndsted.
If you want to join this series, which will run through May, please register at https://ivom.phage.directory — as many of you know, ISVM is asking for a small contribution from senior scientists and industry for access to this series, which will support ISVM’s activities now and in the future.
Phage Directory is a proud partner of this event, and so are the local organizers for VoM 2022, the upcoming in-person/hybrid conference in Portugal July 18-22!
14th Euro-Global Conference on Infectious Diseases
June 24-25, 2022 Berlin, Germany.
Greetings from Euro Infectious Diseases 2022!
We would like to solicit your gracious presence as a speaker/delegate at the upcoming “14th Euro-Global Conference on Infectious Diseases” which is a CME accredited conference.
Ethan Lucas, Program Manager, Euro Infectious Diseases 2022.
Phages 2022 Oxford - 12th International Conference
Dates: 05-06 September 2022
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PhageOxford; Hashtag: #PhgOx22
We warmly invite you to attend you to attend our 12th annual Oxford bacteriophage conference – the longest running phage conferences series in Europe. We are committed to holding this conference as a ‘virtual-in-person’ hybrid event at our traditional venue of St Hilda’s College, Oxford, UK (COVID-19 situation permitting).
Get involved in shaping the conference agenda:
The conference agenda will include most aspects of bacteriophage research and application in medicine, food and biotechnology.
We welcome proposals for:
• keynote and other speakers
• agenda topics
• an emerging ‘phage-ologist’ award
Registration will open soon. In the meantime, please send any queries to [email protected]. We look forward to seeing you in Oxford in September!
PHAGE GENOME ANNOTATION TWO-DAY VIRTUAL WORKSHOP
A two-day course that will cover the processes of phage genome assembly, annotation and introduction to comparative phage genome analysis. Solutions to common phage genome assembly problems will be presented, through worked examples. Attendees can bring their own phage genomes or raw reads to assemble.
When: 25-26 April 2022, time TBA
Where: Zoom
Instructor: Dr Andy Millard, University of Leicester
Phage Australia’s new website is live at phageaustralia.org!
Phage Australia is a national network of phage researchers and clinician scientists who aim to professionalise phage therapy as the third major intervention for infectious diseases.
To do this, Phage Australia is building a national ecosystem that integrates phage biobanking, rapid phage diagnostics, phage manufacturing, and an adaptive clinical trial framework that fits the context of personalized phage therapy.
Read more about Australia’s phage therapy network!
Is there any interest in anyone at looking at the gut microbiome of a very small arachnida to ID bacteria and associated phages? Please contact B. Bloetscher at [email protected].
Have you succeeded or failed to isolate Mycobacterium abscessus phages? We are setting up a new lab in Florida and looking for tips —Johan Wikström
Africa Phage Forum Webinar Oct 26, 2022 2:00 PM in Brussels: The famous phage researcher in Brussels Dr. Jean-Paul Pirnay has accepted to celebrate the World Phage Week with African phage researchers and collaborators through an online webinar.
The talk will cover the long and winding road from phage research, over phage production, to authorized phage applications in patients in Belgium. Save the date to know everything about PHAGE THERAPY in Belgium.
World Phage Week 2022 Webinar Series: The Ibadan Bacteriophage Research Team is celebrating World Phage Week 2022 with a webinar series on October 28 (1-4 PM West African Time) and October 29 (9-11 AM West African Time).
The theme will be “Emerging Prospects in Bacteriophage Use and Clinical Phage Therapy”. Come hear talks by Prof. Martha Clokie, Prof. Jon Iredell, Dr. Temitope Faleye, Dr. Atunga Nyachieo, and Ivy Mutai.
I’m very happy to share that our new project entitled “SUPPLY: SUperfast Photonic detection of Phage LYsis” has been granted ~1.3 Millions by the FNS-ANR in the last Lead Agency call. I’m very excited to start this four-year collaboration with great teams from EPFL (Romuald Houdré), CEA Grenoble (Emmanuel Hadji), and CNRS Grenoble (Marc Zelsmann)! — Gregory Resch via LinkedIn
Raphael Hans wrote a new blog post on phage mediated biocontrol of phytopathogens for thephage.xyz.
The MDPI Journal ‘Cells’ is hosting a special issue entitled Phage Therapy and Phage-Derived Enzymes as Antibacterial Agents led by Guest Editors Drs. Stephen Abedon, Katarzyna Danis-Wlodarczyk, Razi Kebriaei, and Aleksandra Petrovic Fabijan.
On Feb 28 at 5PM East Africa Time, Phage Kenya Consortium will be hosting a talk by Dr. Evelien Adriaenssens (Quadram Institute; Chair of ICTV Bacterial Viruses Committee) on the recently announced changes to phage taxonomy, including the abolishment of Myoviridae/Siphoviridae/Podoviridae families.
On February 8 at 9:30am GMT the UK Parliament Science and Technology Committee will be holding a public oral evidence session for “The antimicrobial potential of bacteriophages.”
On Feb 28 at 5 PM East Africa Time, the Africa Phage Forum will be hosting a talk by Dr. Evelien Adriaenssens (Quadram Institute; Chair of ICTV Bacterial Viruses Committee) on the recently announced changes to phage taxonomy, including the abolishment of Myoviridae/Siphoviridae/Podoviridae families.
The 28th Biennial Conference on Phage/Virus Assembly will be held at Shrigley Hall in Macclesfield, UK from 18-23 June 2023.
Save the date! The Evergreen International Phage Meeting is back this year (and back on campus)! Confirmed dates: Aug 6-11th 2023. 500 people max. Details to come!
In a talk entitled “Bacteriophage Therapy: From Soviet Clinical Experience to Current Activities at the Eliava Institute”, Dr. Mzia Kutateladze (Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, Georgia) will present her latest research at the Targeting Phage Therapy Congress in Paris (June 1-2, 2023).
From the Phagebiotics Research Foundation:
Greetings Phage friends!
The 25th biennial International Evergreen Phage Meeting is set to kick off in person, in full Evergreen fashion, with Dr. Betty Kutter at the Evergreen State College. Mark your calendar for AUG 6-11th 2023! Phagebiotics Research Foundation is looking forward for you to participate and we are counting down these final few days until the launch of the 2023 website!
We ask you to hold tight, while we are hard at work finalizing the details and preparing for a great meeting. Stay tuned for further announcements and please follow us on social media to catch the latest announcements and updates.
P.S. We are going to Mt. Rainier on Betty’s Birthday, Fri. AUG 11th 2023!
Please plan on attending this special day to celebrate and hike with Betty.
Hosted by:
Phagebiotics Research Foundation & Phage Directory
Phage Meeting: Aug 6-11 2023
Multiple Workshops: Aug 6 and TBA
Mt. Rainier: AUG 11 2023
Our @PhageFiles podcast is finally here! Tune in on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Deezer and Amazon Music to listen to our first episodes. In our podcast we will discuss all things phage. You will hear from researchers and entrepreneurs interested in different aspects of phage biology. But first, we will tell you about the fascinating history of phage discovery.
We would like to thank @Ellie_Jameson for our beautiful phage mini versions. Check out more of Ellie’s artwork here!
Stay tuned!
ESCMID (European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases) is hosting a hands-on course on phage therapy 25 - 27 July 2023, Brussels, Belgium) – register by 06 June 2023 (25 spaces only!).
In this LinkedIn post, Leonard Theron (RumeXperts) discusses the upcoming Phage Academy event in Belgium and the importance of phages in bovine disease management.
In this CIDRAP podcast episode, ‘Phage Against the Routine’, Steffanie Strathdee, Greg Merril, Patrick McGann, and Jason Bennett discuss how infections caused by resistant Acinetobacter impact patients and new treatments.
The 4th International Conference on #Bacteriophage Research and #AntimicrobialResistance is happening at the University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai, India September 28-30, 2023.
Phage Phriday is back talking GMP & phages w/regulators & experts in the field. “Just say no to GMP?” with @Motherofphage, @AdriCaroHM, @PaulPirnay, Barbara Brenner @phages2patients, Patrick Druggan, and more! Friday, 31 Mar at 8:00 PM CEST on @clubhouse.
Top Agar Question
This is a basic question but one I do need advice with. My high school phage team will begin looking for a phage next fall from a new host. The host has not been studied much for phages. How do you choose a top agar for new hosts/phages? Is there a generic TA that works well? We currently use MBTA for Mycobacterium but I did not know if top agars are phage specific. Thanks for your guidance.
The Sullivan lab is hosting the 2023 Viromics Workshop October 11-13, 2023, in-person at the Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. You can expect deep dives on virus identification, virus taxonomy/classification, databases, ecogenomics pipeline, auxiliary metabolic gene analysis, virus-host linkages, and genome annotation.
Tom Ireland’s new book The Good Virus explores the potential of phages as the future of medicine, including their ability to target tumours with cancer drugs and fight antibiotic-resistant infections.
The journal ‘PHAGE: Therapy, Applications, and Research’ has achieved its first impact factor of 2.7. The journal offers immediate deposit to PubMed, a zero-embargo Green Open Access policy, and free 30-day access to share your research with networks and colleagues.
PhageLab’s CTO, Pablo Cifuentes Palma, was interviewed by the BBC’s Jane Chambers on “The Coolest Science in the World” segment of the Unexpected Elements podcast about PhageLab’s work with phages (starts at the 29:55 minute mark).
ISVM General Assembly Meeting is taking place during the Viruses of Microbes conference in Tbilisi, Georgia from 17h30-18h30 on Tuesday, July 4th. This is a great opportunity to get to know the Executive Board, make suggestions and hear what ISVM has planned for the upcoming year!
Hello, I’m working on my bachelor’s thesis and I need specific information about phage and bacterial genetics. Do you know or could you help me find sources, if it is possible for bacteria to acquire and use phage genes for their own benefit after they neutralise phage infection (through CRISPR/CAS for example)? I don’t mean lysogeny, pseudo-lysogeny, or phage fragment storage for “bacterial immunity” but something like horizontal gene transfer from degraded phage DNA to the bacterial genome. Do you know any papers that discuss this topic? Email: [email protected]
Developing Scientific Guidelines for Phage Banks
The next meeting for this project will be held on August 6th at Evergreen State College and will be accessible online. We will continue to brainstorm about the topics that should be covered in the phage bank guidelines.
The meeting will run from 1:15 - 5:00 PM (PDT). For those attending in-person, lunch will be provided and will be available from 12:15 - 1:15 PM (PDT).
If you would like to attend (either in-person or virtually), please confirm this by emailing Fran Hodges ([email protected]) by August 2nd.
Thanks!
Tobi & Fran
In a new episode of Phagecast, the hosts speak with Ben Burrowes, CEO of BB Phage Consultancy, known for his work on phage training, A.K.A. the Appleman’s protocol.
The Computational Phage Genomics Programme 2023 at the University of Copenhagen runs in-person Oct 27 - Nov 3, offering hands-on experience analysing phage genome sequencing data, from raw NGS reads to a fully assembled and annotated phage genome. The course includes lectures and computer exercises.
Antibiotics journal is inviting submissions for a special issue on “Phages and Their Derived Products as Novel Strategies to Combat Bacterial Infections”, with submission deadline on 31 Dec 2023.
Adaptive Phage Therapeutics is combating antibiotic resistance with phage therapy in a new film, Race Against Resistance debuting September 5, as they take viewers on a phage hunt through the zoo to find out where phages come from.
The 4th International Conference on Bacteriophage Research and Antimicrobial Resistance is hosting ”Phages for Life”, a hybrid conference from Sept 28-30 in Chennai, India and online, with the theme of “Harnessing bacteriophages for human well-being”.
Interested in graduate microbiome research at Penn State University? Register today for @PSUmBiome Graduate Studies Open House Oct 12th, 6-7 PM ET.
Medical-grade phage is now available for expanded access through Tolka.ai’s waitlist, after a year of hard work by Johan Wikstrom, Keqing Li, Thomas Hunt, Volodymyr Kulchytskyi, and the broader phage community; phage researchers can learn more at tolka.ai/expandedaccess.
Katelyn McNair, the creator of Phanotate, has introduced a new tool called Genotate, designed to identify and predict coding genes in phage genomes.
Now in final stages of development, it’s built to take your phage genome annotation and analysis to the next level. They’re looking for dedicated volunteers who are passionate about phage genomics and annotation to help test and refine Genotate.
Contact Katelyn to get involved!
Did you know that VoM is heading down under? The Viruses of Microbes (VoM) Conference will take place in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, July 15-19th, 2024.
Registration is open now!
Australia’s The Project showcases new Phage Australia work on a new children’s CF clinical trial using phages.
Phage Bites is back! The Bacteriophage Biology & Therapeutics (BBT) SIG is hosting their second symposium Sept 26 featuring brief presentations from postgraduate students on phage-related topics, followed by an expert panel discussion on “Standardisation in phage therapy.”
Phage Futures 2023, a free, one-day online conference which aims to bring together phage researchers and industry professionals to explore phage commercialization, is being hosted online October 25th by Kisaco Research. Read the full Agenda
From @scientiff via Twitter: Hey #scitwitter! I’m troubleshooting some #phage DNA extraction woes with our undergrads. We use phenol-chloroform-isoamyl and phase-lock gels for the process but we’re still getting high 260/230 after elution. Any advice on DNA clean up would be much appreciated!
BBC Radio 4, a popular radio station in the United Kingdom, published a podcast episode titled “Bacteria: The Tiny Giants, Forests, Pharma and Phages” that explores various aspects of phage research and their impact on ecosystems.
Dr. David Harper, an expert in phage technology, is launching The Phage Adviser, an advisory service for companies and researchers, aiming to provide guidance and support in the emerging field of phage technology.
I am a phage enthusiast and my abstract on phage therapy was accepted by the African Genetic Biocontrol Consortium for oral. However, I had to cater for registration, accommodation and travel fees. Unfortunately, I had to decline my participation in this conference. One of my abstracts has just been accepted by another organization and I am told to do same thing. Therefore, I am seeking travel grants to raise awareness on phage therapy in developing countries.
Regards, Noutin Michodigni, PhD in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology.
Please contact me directly at [email protected].
This month on the PhageCast podcast, a new episode format has been released, with a focus on short stories from PhD students or early stage researchers. It has been opened up with Veronique Ongenae and her recently released paper: “Reversible bacteriophage resistance by shedding the bacterial cell wall”.
Phage Futures: Global Digital Summit is happening October 25, 2023, and will focus on accelerating the translation of phages into viable therapeutics and commercial solutions. Book your free pass here!
The Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health at University of Maryland is recruiting healthy volunteers for an investigational Shigella challenge study to evaluate the effectiveness of phages in treating Shigella infections. Volunteers will be compensated $4,100 each.
Andrea Fossati just announced that their grant for investigating phage-Mycobacterium tuberculosis interactions was funded by Vetenskapsradet (the Swedish Research Council).
The Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Virtual Conference (6 & 7 February, 2024; free and online) is currently accepting submissions for poster presentations.
Grace Beggs and colleagues at Princeton University are organizing a workshop called “Bacteria versus Phage: The Main Event” from January 10-12, 2024, focusing on the interactions between bacteria and phage, bringing together scientists interested in phage to exchange ideas.
Viruses of Microbes (VoM) 2024 is happening in Cairns, Australia July 15-19 2024. This is the International Society for Viruses of Microbes (ISVM)'s flagship biennial conference, held outside of Europe next year for the very first time! Abstracts are open soon, as is registration! Check the website for new key dates, just released.
Viruses of Microbes UK, a local subsidiary of VoM, will take place January 25-26, 2024 at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. This will be a two-day round table and phage genomics workshop, highlighting the latest research on phage-host interactions and targeting specific bacteria.
iVoM Season 3, the ISVM’s webinar series, kicks off this December with its first session on “Ecological & Functional Roles of Viruses in Contrasting Environments.” Mark your calendars: Dec 12, 2023, 8 PM CET.
Call for Organizers: VoM 2026! The ISVM invites enthusiastic members to organize the Viruses of Microbes 2026 conference, #VoM2026. Submit your application by April 30, 2024, to [email protected]. Be at the forefront of this exciting conference!
Abstract submissions are OPEN for #VoM2024 Meeting in Cairns, Australia! Join us July 15-19, 2024 to explore the expanding frontiers in virology. Check the website for details & to submit an abstract, & watch the video invitation to get even more excited!.
Phage Research Progress Assessment for Collective Funding Application
Dear Phage Research Community,
We invite you to participate in this brief survey to assess the current state of phage research in various labs. Your valuable insights will help us understand the progress and challenges in the field with the ultimate goal of knowing the state of phage research in Africa. Please take a few minutes to provide information about the stage of your phage work, collaborations, challenges, and future plans. Your responses will contribute to a comprehensive overview of phage research, supporting collaborative efforts and funding applications.
Thank you for your participation and contribution to advancing phage research.
Sincerely,
Africa Phage Forum team
Phage Oxford 2024, the longest running phage conferences series in Europe, and the second longest running phage conference globally, will be held on 02-03 September 2024 as a ‘virtual/in-person’ hybrid event at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, UK.
The Sustainable Microbiology journal has a themed collection focused on phage diversity and contributions to improving animal, environmental, and human health. Submit your research by January 1, 2024.
Phages for Global Health’s president, Dr. Tobi Nagel, has been selected as 1 of 22 Fulbright Global Scholars in this year’s cohort!
Funded by the US Congress, Tobi’s project will help establish phage regulatory systems in Africa and Asia by compiling and sharing information on how phage-based drugs are currently regulated in the US, Europe and Australia with national leaders in Africa and Asia.
Congratulations Tobi!!
If you are using iPHoP for phage host prediction: a new update has just been released (1.3.3), alongside an updated host database now based on GTDB r214. Updated code and database available via conda / Docker. Report any issues here.
Phage.ai has developed a Python package! PhageAI is an AI-driven software platform for prediction of phage lifecycle and taxonomy, providing valuable insights into phage characteristics and protein structural classes classification. Try it out!
On a new episode of the Accelerating Success podcast, Dr. Steven Theriault discusses how regulatory hurdles in Canada hinder access to innovative animal health products, leading Cytophage Technologies to decide against bringing their products to Canada for the time being.
UC San Diego’s Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH) is launching the Phage Therapy Clinical Support Fund to increase accessibility to phage therapy for patients worldwide who require compassionate use of phages.
This week Phagecast podcast published a new episode featuring an interview with Jean-Paul Pirnay! Dive into the world of phage therapy in Belgium – how it started, current practices, and future perspectives. This episode is the first of a two-part interview, which explores the initial 100 documented cases, sharing insights into treatment efficacy, adverse reactions, and the challenges faced. Stay tuned for the second part of the interview! Enjoy!
Ann Gregory, PhD via Twitter: Does anyone have any advice for where to purchase start-up equipment with a tight budget? (1) Class II Biosafety Cabinet, (2) Benchtop Microcentrifuge, (3) Anaerobic Chamber, (4) Autoclavable Micropipettes sets, (5) -80C Freezer.
Greg German (Unity Health Toronto) has been awarded a Professorship at the University of Toronto for Bacteriophage Research and Innovation with a five year term. Congrats Greg!
Hi, everyone in phage community, my name is Dr. Prince, I belong to India, and I completed my doctorate in phage characterization and its application. I am looking for a postdoc position in phage biology. Please help me for the postdoc position, my email is [email protected].
Hugo Oliveira (University of Minho) will share insights from in vitro and in vivo studies on a phage-derived protein on February 29th at 11 AM GMT as part of the Africa Phage Forum series. Register here.
Dear phage researchers, for receptor-binding experiments, we are looking for phage T2. If anyone is still actively working with T2, we’d appreciate a small sample. With best wishes, Mark van Raaij, [email protected]
Only 4 months remain until the Viruses of Microbes 2024 Meeting takes place (July 15-19, 2024). Phage researchers are encouraged to confirm their participation early to plan for the trip down under!
PhageCast recently interviewed Lorenzo Corsini about why Staph phages don’t work well in plasma or synovial fluid, and talked to Jean-Paul Pirnay (2-part series) about the Queen Astrid Military Hospital’s first 100 documented cases of phage therapy in Belgium. Tune in on Spotify to catch up!
Dear researchers and Professors: This is a small bio-technology company in China. We urgently need to buy or share some Streptococcus mutant phage M102, M102AD, e10, f1, SMHBZ8, APCM01, phiKSM96, to continue our research, If you got some or have some information, please email us，many thanks. David ([email protected])
Michael Shamash, a gut phageome PhD student at McGill University, explores the influence of gut phages on the human microbiome and their potential impact on health in a podcast interview with Justine Dees at the Joyful Microbe.
From David Bikard via Twitter: A question to the phage aficionado. Do you have clear examples of anti-phage defense systems that block the production or assembly of phage particles without targeting the phage DNA and without resulting in cell death or dormancy?
In an article featured in BioSpectrum India, Atif Khan, a scientist at the Biofouling and Biofilm Processes Section of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, India discusses the likely establishment of phage infrastructure in India within the next five years. He describes how CIBA in Chennai has developed phages for controlling Vibrio in prawn farming, how the University of Madras is working on phages for agricultural applications, and how the polish biotech Proteon Pharmaceuticals is settling up its plant in India.
This week on PhageCast, the team talked to Paul Turner about how his lab is predicting the trade-offs of bacterial resistance to phage, to achieve killing by reversing the antibiotic resistance. They also covered how these findings are translated from in vitro to in vivo, and he also gave really inspiring advice for the people in the field.
The International Society of Microbiota will host their 11th Annual Meeting, Targeting Microbiota, on October 17-18 at the Corinthia Palace Malta, to explore the role of microbiota in health and disease, advancements in microbiome medicine, and the clinical applications of phage therapy, among other topics.
In another recent TWiV episode, learn how mammalian cells internalize and utilize phage particles to enhance cell growth and survival.
In a recent podcast episode of This Week in Virology (TWiV), learn how a viral capsid protein activates a bacterial innate immune system, interfering with protein synthesis, and human-associated redondoviruses that infect the commensal protozoan Entamoeba gingivalis. Hosted by Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Rich Condit, Kathy Spindler, and Jolene Ramsey.
The BV-BRC Viral Sub-species Classification Workshop, funded by NIAID, will be held in Rockville, MD from April 8-10, 2024.
This hybrid event, in collaboration with the CDC and NCBI, aims to establish best practices for viral sub-species classification.
The workshop will review current classification schemes and methodologies, fostering a collaborative approach to future pandemic preparedness.
Wondering how phage therapy startups raise money? PhageLab recently raised $11M, and this ‘pitch deck teardown’ blog post goes through the pitch deck they used to convince investors, which slides pack the most punch, and other tips.
The 2nd Symposium of the Belgian Society for Viruses of Microbes (BSVoM) was held on September 8, 2023, at the University of Liège, featuring over 140 researchers from 10 countries discussing phage ecology, diversity, and applications.
The event also launched the “Phage Valley” initiative, promoting Belgium’s collaborative phage research ecosystem.
The International Society of Viruses of Microorganisms (ISVM) is calling for applications to organize the Viruses of Microbes (VoM) 2026 conference.
Interested ISVM members should submit their applications by April 30, 2024, to [email protected].
The selection process includes a review and presentation at VoM 2024 in Cairns, Australia. Organizing VoM is rewarding but demands strong teamwork and planning.
New phage textbook edition alert! Tristan Ferry, an ID physician in Lyon, announced the release of the second edition of “Bacteriophage Therapy; From Lab to Clinical Practice.”. The book, edited by Sanna Sillankorva and Joana Azeredo, covers advanced experimental and clinical phage therapy methods.
Phage researchers are invited to save the date for the 2024 International Soil Virus Conference in Livermore, California, USA, from June 25 to June 27, focusing on exploring the multifaceted roles of soil viruses within a One Health framework and featuring speakers such as Dr. Kurt Williamson and Dr. Uri Neri. Contact organizer Gary Trubl for more info.
Aaryan Harshith (Stanford University) has just launched PhageBase, a dedicated phage TEM image database. There are already quite a few phages on there; feel free to upload your own! He wrote a blog introducing it here.
IDWeek 2024 (Oct 16-19, Los Angeles) is now accepting applications for their Pipeline Sessions and BugHub Stages, inviting companies and researchers to submit novel antimicrobial agents or diagnostic technologies for a chance to present at the conference. Applications are due June 26.
WHO Europe in collaboration with the Global AMR R&D Hub is hosting a webinar called ‘Towards building the evidence for broader use of bacteriophages from an AMR One Health perspective’ on April 18. This 1st webinar in a series of 3 will focus on opportunities and challenges facing application of phages for human health.
Wilfried Moreira is serving as Guest Editor for a new Special Issue on “Bacteriophage Biology and Phage-Derived Technologies” in the open access journal International Journal of Molecular Sciences, with a submission deadline of August 31, 2024.
Baylor College of Medicine researchers Anthony Maresso and Michael Tisza, have won the 2024 STAT Madness competition for their groundbreaking work on using wastewater monitoring as an early-warning system for disease outbreaks, demonstrating the detection of over 450 disease-causing viruses in public wastewater.
Researchers: want to help develop a phage-based TB diagnostic? Consider sharing samples from previous studies with the team at PDB Biotech. Dr. Timothy Rodwell’s lab at UCSD has already donated over 2,000 frozen PBMC samples for this work, and the company is looking for more. Email [email protected] to learn more!
Phage Canada, a newly established non-profit organization aiming to support and advance phage research and phage therapeutics in Canada, has a new website and is open for membership!
Registration is now open for the 2024 International Soil Virus Conference!
Soil virologists and enthusiasts will gather to explore the multifaceted roles of soil viruses within a One Health framework, with a special focus on meta-omics characterization of soil viruses and their connections with biogeochemistry, food web dynamics, and soil health.
The meeting takes place June 25 to June 27 at the University of California Livermore Collaboration Center (virtual option available).
Register by June 14!
The International Society of Viruses of Microorganisms (ISVM) is inviting enthusiastic and dedicated members to apply to become organizers of the Viruses of Microbes 2026 conference by 30 April 2024, with the selected organizers to be announced in mid-June 2024 at the upcoming Viruses of Microbes conference (VoM 2024) in Cairns, Australia.
Actiphage TB, a novel phage-based TB diagnostic developed by PBD Biotech, has been recognized as a semi-finalist in the ADLM 2024 Disruptive Technology Awards.
Graham Hatfull, a phage researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences for his distinguished achievements in research, recognizing his work on mycobacteriophages and his extensive catalog of these phages. Congrats Graham!!
The Phage Bioinformatics Wish List Survey is live!
(Thanks to the 31 respondents to date! The data is shaping up to be super informative!)
This survey aims to better understand the needs and satisfaction levels of phage biologists regarding various functions and bioinformatics tools used for phage sequence analysis, particularly in support of phage therapy. Your insights are invaluable in guiding future developments in this field.
This survey has been prepared by Bishoy M. Zaki and Ramy K. Aziz. It is not affiliated with any private or academic organization to which they belong.
From David Bikard via Twitter: Hello phage phriends. Do you have examples of anti-phage defense systems that were shown to tolerate lysogeny but target the phage when it enters its lytic cycle ? (beyond type III CRISPR)
The World Health Organization (WHO) is hosting a webinar on environmental use of phages on May 16. This is the third and final in the series exploring the broader use of phages from an AMR One Health perspective.
Watch the first two in the series: phage in humans (attended by 1400!) and phage in animals (attended by 700!).
Also, WHO Europe just created a dedicated Bacteriophage group — anyone can join!
Attention phage researchers! You have until Monday June 24th to make your opinions (on phage banks) count!
Tobi Nagel (Phages for Global Health) and Francesca Hodges (Innovate UK Business Connect) are working to capture the global phage community’s recommendations for curating and managing phage banks around the world.
Phage researchers are invited to agree/disagree with the compiled preliminary list of Recommendations for Phage Banks.
This has been a MONUMENTAL effort by Tobi and Fran (and many phage community members!) over the past TWO years. They’ve hosted ‘town hall’ events at Viruses of Microbes Tbilisi, Evergreen International Phage Conference, and online via extensive working groups and surveys.
Please take a few minutes (before Monday!) and add your views, so we can move forward as a community toward well-characterized phage collections that we can all use, share, and build from.
P.S. The current status of the project will be presented at the Viruses of Microbes 2024 conference!
Want to submit a session proposal for #ASMicrobe 2025 (particularly in the field of microbial ecology, evolution, and genomics)? The deadline is in a week! Submit your proposal here.
The 14th annual Oxford Phage Conference will be held September 2-3, 2024 in Oxford, UK as a hybrid event.
Confirmed speakers include Professor Martha Clokie (UK) | Professor Aidan Coffey (Ireland) | Dr Mariam Dadiani (Georgia) | Professor Heather Allison (UK) | Professor David Gally (UK) | Dr Janine Bowring (Denmark) | Dr Antonia Sagona (UK) | Dr Sabrina Green (Belgium) | Dr Christian Fitch (UK) | Professor Paul Bollyky (USA).
See also the conference organizer’s youtube channel for past talks.
Ely O. Aboka of the Phage Hunters Training and Research Program in Nairobi, Kenya will host a LinkedIn Live panel discussion on July 31st, 2024 from 9:00 PM EAT on the topic ‘Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) & Phage Therapy.’ Panelists include Prof. Steffanie Strathdee, Dr. Sabrina Green, and Christopher Shaffer, with Dr. Atunga serving as the session moderator.
🎙️ New Podovirus Podcast Episode Alert!
I had such a great time talking to Jesus Fernandez-Rodriguez, PhD, VP of Technology at Eligo Bioscience, about how they’re editing live microbes in the mouse gut with engineered phages!
🧬 Highlights & questions:
- 93% editing efficiency in gut E. coli with a single dose of a phage-derived base editor! (And it lasts for at least 6 weeks…!)
- Where are we at with microbiome therapeutics?
- How do you make phages deliver genes to live microbes?
- Is this tool just as cool as a perturbing device (to ASK questions about what happens when you turn off a bacterial gene in the gut) as it is a therapeutic?
Check out the full episode here:
🎧Spotify
📺 Youtube
📄 Here’s the team’s new Nature paper
🤔One thing I really wanted to know, but must remain a secret for a bit longer — what should we be targeting first with something like this?
Would love to hear your thoughts!
Join us for World Phage Week Webinar 2024, hosted by the Ibadan Phage Research Team at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
The event will take place TODAY/TOMORROW — Friday, October 25, to Saturday, October 26, 2024 (West Africa Standard Time).
Register here! And/or tune in to the live stream on YouTube:
Day 1 Youtube Livestream | Day 2 Youtube Livestream
Don’t miss this exciting annual event!
New phage book alert! Lina Zeldovich announced that her new book, “The Living Medicine,” is out today, described by reviewers as “unputdownable” and compared to “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” making it a must-read for those interested in the intersection of medicine and storytelling (and phages!).
Phage Hunters Training and Research Program has announced a fundraising campaign to support phage research training in Africa. The initiative aims to equip young scientists with bioinformatics skills for in-silico phage hunting to combat antimicrobial resistance.
Darren Smith (Northumbria University) and colleagues invite phage researchers to the Viruses of Microbes - UK conference, featuring keynote speakers, over 100 postgraduate presentations, and a pre-conference phage genomics workshop.
23rd - 24th January 2025
The two-day event aims to support early-career researchers and foster collaborations within the UK phage community.
