Abstract: My talk will cover how looking into the ecology of dynamics between bacteriophages and bacteria can help us develop phages for therapeutic application. In general there are two discreet communities of phage biologists, those who isolate phages and try and use them to treat plant, animal and human diseases and those who try and understand the fundamental aspects of phage biology. My work is largely centred in the middle of these extremes and I will share thoughts, and insights from recent studies on how I think an ecological understanding of phages may prevent us from ‘reinventing the wheel’, each time we wish to treat a different pathogen and allow us to identify commonalities between unrelated phage groups. I will share recent data from my lab to support these ideas.

Biography: I am a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Leicester with 73 published papers on bacteriophages. I lead a group of 5 post-doctoral assistants and 5 PhD students working on different aspects of the therapeutic development of phages that target human and animal pathogens. I have a good grounding in all aspects of phage therapy development – from unravelling fundamental biology to product development, and commercialisation. Three three patents have been filed from my work.

In brief these are: to protect a set of therapeutic Clostridium difficile phages - granted in the US and Europe (Therapeutic Phages; PCT/GB20 13759275.4; and 14/423284); a Lyme disease phage-based diagnostic test (PCT/GB2017/053323), currently being commercially developed with the R.E.D. laboratories, a leading European diagnostic company; and an animal Salmonella phage mix (Therapeutic Phages; PCT/GB20 1815483.1).

I have edited four books on phages, these have sold thousands of copies are the recognised authority on phage methods (and have also been translated to Chinese). I have consulted to many biotech companies. I am the Editor in Chief for a newly to be launched journal PHAGE: therapy, applications and research. I have been exposed to the practical use of phage in humans in Georgia and Russia and consulted with medical professionals to help design phage clinical trials to treat respiratory infections and diabetic foot ulcers respectively.

Much of my work has focussed on developing phage products that target the anaerobic gut pathogen, Clostridium difficile. This led to a string of papers on the fundamental and applied aspects of the disease. I have a track record of translating fundamental science to applied settings evidenced by my work on Salmonella, that led to two recent three-year BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) awards to design, formulate and evaluate phage products for use in British and Thai livestock. I have had projects to optimise phages production, stability and spray drying.

I worked with the Department of Health and Wellcome Trust to inform debate and prioritisation of alternative therapies to antibiotic/antimicrobial drugs (2016); served on FSA (Food Standards Agency) Committee to advise on phage regulation in food (2016); Served on MRC funding committee for Antimicrobial Resistance Cross-Council Initiative Theme 2 (2015/2016). My work has been the focus of recent phage documentaries on BBC world service and Bloomsburg Press. I was also recently on BBC R4 Life Scientific (October 2019), a programme that showcases scientists and on iconic ‘Infinite Monkey Cage’, a science comedy hosted by Brian Cox, January 2018.

I developed and regularly run a course to teach phage biology to African academics, as part of a Gates funded ‘Phages for Global Health’ Yale-Leicester collaboration. All of my applied work is routed in fundamental biology and my early phage research was focussed on understanding how ocean bacteriophages controlled their marine bacterial hosts. My work paved the way for a new research field which is still very much active, that of determining complex ways that phages interact with their bacterial hosts.