Engineered phages help teenager with antibiotic-resistant infection

“I kept hearing tidbits,” said Jessica Sacher, who runs a directory that connects clinicians and patients looking to try phage therapy as an experimental last resort with the microbiologists who keep collections of the viruses. According to Hatfull, it was the fact that they had erased part of the viruses’ genetic code, without adding anything, that allowed them to get those two phages through regulations on genetically modified organisms and send the live cocktail to London, where it was first used on the patient’s external wounds, and then injected into her bloodstream. Spencer worries about the phage resistance they’ve seen when they’ve taken the fluid from the last remaining skin lumps and tested it in the lab, so Hatfull has been looking for new viruses to add into the mix.

Source: www.statnews.com