Great article. Ironically, most of the new technology 'needed' is to deal with US/EU regulatory functions and to make the product for profit, not for patient efficacy, which has been served for 100 years. With a very small amount of funding any government could choose to make a national repository for phage selection and delivery, and choose to have the patient sign a waiver that the product they are taking is not characterized in the same as a regular medicine. Technical improvements could then be layered over the top. In the meantime you have decent full employment for a good number of people with a strong mission and high technical expertise.
Thanks to Tom Ireland for this great essay and congratulations to Asimov Press as a previous reader of Codon. I hope that the advances in automation, AI and synthetic biology that we are experiencing in the last decade will make all those involved in phage therapy go far.
Here in Spain, I did my MSc internship in an agrobiotech company where they are developing a phage-based product against fire blight disease caused by Erwinia amylovora (https://www.phagefire.eu). It is an EU-funded H2020 project consisting of several partners and is expected to be launched this year.
Great article. Ironically, most of the new technology 'needed' is to deal with US/EU regulatory functions and to make the product for profit, not for patient efficacy, which has been served for 100 years. With a very small amount of funding any government could choose to make a national repository for phage selection and delivery, and choose to have the patient sign a waiver that the product they are taking is not characterized in the same as a regular medicine. Technical improvements could then be layered over the top. In the meantime you have decent full employment for a good number of people with a strong mission and high technical expertise.
Thanks to Tom Ireland for this great essay and congratulations to Asimov Press as a previous reader of Codon. I hope that the advances in automation, AI and synthetic biology that we are experiencing in the last decade will make all those involved in phage therapy go far.
Here in Spain, I did my MSc internship in an agrobiotech company where they are developing a phage-based product against fire blight disease caused by Erwinia amylovora (https://www.phagefire.eu). It is an EU-funded H2020 project consisting of several partners and is expected to be launched this year.
Fantastic article! Really broke down a complex subject in such a way that a amateur like me could understand
Ancillary books for those interested:
1. Life in Our Phage World, by Forest Rohwer, Merry Youle, Heather Maughan and Nao Hisakawa.
2. Thinking Like a Phage, by Merry Youle.
Both are very rewarding.