In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Graham Hatfull, a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr Hatfull joins Dr Saag to discuss Bacteriophages for the treatment of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacterial infections. Dr Hatfull provides an overview of the types of bacteriophages and how they can be used to treat antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. Dr Hatfull and Dr Saag discuss the challenges of treating bacterial infections with phages given the diversity and complexity of the different types of bacteria and bringing phage treatments to scale. Finally, they discuss what research is needed to overcome the challenges of phage treatment and look to the future where technology enables synthetically produced phages to provide targeted therapy to antimicrobial resistant bacteria.

0:00 – Introduction

1:05 – Overview of bacteriophages and Dr Hatfull's interest in phage research

2:46 – How phages can be used clinically for antimicrobial-resistant bacteria

4:34 – Differences between the 2 types of phages: lytic phages and temperate phages

6:01 – How phages are used to target specific types of bacteria

9:37 – The challenge of phage treatment matching and natural CRISPR processes within bacteria

15:16 – Understanding the phage genome diversity 

18:59 – Discussion of therapeutic uses of phages

28:32 – Prospect of phages for future treatments including synthetic phages

Resources: 

Harnessing the Power of Bacteriophages with Dr Robert Schooley:

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/_BUpDRNhMsQ
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-10-harnessing-the-power-of-bacteriophages/id1713226144?i=1000647215580 

Exploring Bacteriophage Therapy for Drug-Resistant Bacterial Infections Robert T. Schooley, MD: https://www.iasusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/31-1-23.pdf  

The inaugural Conference on Bacteriophages: Biology, Dynamics, and Therapeutics: https://www.iasusa.org/bacteriophage-conference/ 

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Produced by IAS-USA, Going anti–Viral is a podcast for clinicians involved in research and care in HIV, its complications, and other viral infections. This podcast is intended as a technical source of information for specialists in this field, but anyone listening will enjoy learning more about the state of modern medicine around viral infections.

Going anti-Viral’s host is Dr Michael Saag, a physician, prominent HIV researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and volunteer IAS–USA board member. In most episodes, Dr Saag interviews an expert in infectious diseases or emerging pandemics about their area of specialty and current developments in the field. Other episodes are drawn from the IAS–USA vast catalogue of panel discussions, Dialogues, and other audio from various meetings and conferences.

Email [email protected] to send feedback, show suggestions, or questions to be answered on a later episode.

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