In this episode we talk to Alexander Harms, researcher and proffesor from ETH Zürich. We asked him about the Basel Phage Collection. Lots of basic science covered and many curiosities and insights from E.coli phages that give us certain predictive power towards phage traits.

Some of the questions we cover:

What is your research focus nowadays?

What is the Basel phage collection exactly?

Why K12 as the host?

What are the main learnings from the work of characterization?

Are E coli phages normally broad host range?

What drives this host range?

What do we know about anti-phage defense systems in bacteria?

Could it inform therapeutic selection of E. coli phages?

Can AI build on the learnings from the collection?

Is this collection helping do rational phage engineering?

What are the basic phage characterization assays one should do on phages?

How did you get introduced to the world of phages?

Do you have any favorite failure?

Any advice for PhD students?

What do you like the most in your job?

What are you most excited for in the future of the field?

Where can people find more about you and your work?

PhageCast 2025 is sponsored by PrecisionPhage:

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⁠⁠www.phagenomics.net⁠

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