Reinventing the fight against bacteria, one phage at a time.

WHO targets new antibiotics to fight hospital ‘superbugs’ New guidance encourages pharmaceutical companies to focus research where need is most urgent, amid a rising AMR threat The spread of drug-resistant infections continues to outpace the development of new antibiotics  Credit : Md Saiful Islam Khan/iStockphoto Drugmakers must focus on developing new antibiotics to fight hospital “superbugs” including meningitis and other infections that can resist last-line treatments, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. The agency on Wednesday released its latest guidance identifying the most urgently needed qualities that future antibiotics should have in order to curb the spread of drug-resistant infections – a rising threat to global health. Anti-microbial resistance (AMR) – the phenomenon where bacteria develop resistance to the drugs used to kill them – already kills over a million people a year and is forecast to kill 10 million by 2050. But the spread of drug-resistant infecti...

Cas13 Activation Controls Lysogeny in Type VI-A CRISPR In a groundbreaking study published in Nature Microbiology, researchers have unveiled a sophisticated mechanism by which the type VI-A CRISPR-Cas system in Listeria seeligeri differentially modulates the temperate phage life cycle. This study offers an unprecedented glimpse into how CRISPR immunity, long known for defending bacteria against phage infections, exhibits a remarkable conditional response that balances phage restriction with prophage tolerance. The findings challenge the conventional perception of CRISPR systems solely as bacterial antiviral machines, revealing nuanced control that preserves beneficial prophages while disarming lytic threats. CRISPR-Cas systems have been widely recognized as adaptive immune pathways in bacteria and archaea, providing sequence-specific protection against invading mobile genetic elements. Among the diverse types of CRISPR systems, the type VI CRISPR effector Cas13 is unique in its RNA-tar...

Phage-Antibiotic Combinations: What We Know, What We Don’t, and Where the Field Must Go Next Emerging preclinical, compassionate-use, and randomized trial data suggest phage–antibiotic combinations may benefit select patients with multidrug-resistant infections, yet critical gaps in standardization and evidence remain. Colorized scanning electron microscopy image of phage FG02 (orange) infecting Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria (green). Image Credit: Denis Korneev. Image credit: SIDP What We Know Antimicrobial resistance continues to outpace antibiotic development, leaving clinicians with increasingly limited options for multidrug-resistant infections. 1-3  In this context, bacteriophages have reemerged as a potential adjunctive therapeutic strategy rather than a replacement for antibiotics. Phage-antibiotic combinations (PACs) have gained attention for their ability to enhance bacterial killing, limit the emergence of resistance, and, in some cases, restore susceptibility to exist...