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Project

Therapeutic and prophylactic applications of bacteriophages in human and veterinary medicine.

According to the World Health Organisation, antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security and development today. With the emergence of multi-drug resistant bacteria, phage therapy could provide a new solution to combat bacterial infections. For this reason, two phage therapies will be developed in this PhD to treat two infectious diseases. First, a phage therapy will be developed to treat patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in combination with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), a skin condition with an important impact on the quality of life. Bacterial targets in skin lesions of patients with both IBD and HS will be identified. Subsequently, a phage cocktail will be developed and tested in an open label pilot trial. Second, the addition of bacteriophages to milk replacers could provide a strategy to combat post-weaning diarrhea in piglets. This disease is associated with the proliferation of enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) in the intestine and results in significant economic losses. For this purpose, phages infecting F4 and F18 ETEC strains will be isolated and characterised. The assembled cocktail will be assessed for its stability at relevant conditions and tested in vivo.

Date:21 Sep 2020 →  Today
Keywords:phage therapy, post-weaning diarrhea, hidradenitis suppurativa
Disciplines:Virology
Project type:PhD project