Recent News 16 : Large-Scale Evolutionary Phage Platforms: Revolutionizing the Landscape of Phage Therapy for Population-Wide Application

Large-Scale Evolutionary Phage Platforms: Revolutionizing the Landscape of Phage Therapy for Population-Wide Application The global threat posed by antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has catalyzed renewed interest in bacteriophage therapy as an alternative or adjunct to conventional antibiotics. AMR is responsible for an estimated 1.27 million deaths annually worldwide, with projections warning of a rise to 10 million deaths per year by 2050 if no effective countermeasures are implemented (WHO, 2023; O’Neill, 2016). Phage therapy—using viruses that specifically infect and lyse bacterial pathogens—offers a promising solution due to its specificity, self-amplifying nature, and capacity to circumvent traditional antibiotic resistance mechanisms. Despite its promise, phage therapy has traditionally been constrained to personalized or compassionate use cases, where phages are isolated and matched to individual patients’ bacterial isolates. This bespoke approach, while clinically effective in ...