Community post

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.