Podovirus
Podovirus
Podcast Description
Phages (bacteriophages) are viruses that kill bacteria. In an age of antibiotic resistance, we need them! Luckily there are 1000s of researchers studying phages, using them, and making them available for humans (phage therapy), agriculture, and beyond!
But phages don't quite fit our modern regulatory systems, so there's lots to do.
Jessica will have conversations with guests across the phage field (and beyond - whatever it takes to get answers). From diving into current research and initiatives, to getting to the root of bottlenecks in our field, to making sense of new trends and findings.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast covers a diverse range of topics related to phage therapy and its applications, including episodes discussing the business viability of phage therapy, personalized medicine, regulatory challenges, and microbiome editing, with specific examples such as the journey of companies like Intralytix and Phiogen Pharmaceuticals.
Phages (bacteriophages) are viruses that kill bacteria with sniper-like precision. They can be incredibly useful for treating life-threatening infections (‘phage therapy’), and can help us reduce our dependence on antibiotics. They’ve been known for 100 years… so WHY do we still not see them on the shelves?
Jessica Sacher, PhD (Staff Scientist at Stanford and cofounder of Phage Directory) and Joseph Campbell, PhD (former NIAID program officer) talk to phage therapy practitioners, researchers and entrepreneurs to understand one question: why don’t we have phage therapy yet?
“When I first started, I was treating anything and everything in terms of ‘this is highly drug resistant and it’s failed’. But I think I have a clearer idea now, at least clinically, where I think phage would be beneficial, rather than all comers.”
What does it take to achieve an 85% success rate with phage therapy? We talk to Dr. Saima Aslam, MD, MS, a Professor of Medicine at UC San Diego and the clinical lead of IPATH (Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics), about her strategies for successful phage treatment.
Since 2017, Dr. Aslam has treated many patients with phages, and learned crucial lessons about patient selection, trial design, and the importance of collaboration between clinicians and phage researchers. We explore how her approach has evolved from “treating anything and everything” to targeted strategies, why early clinical trials struggled, and her exciting NIH-funded placebo-controlled trial for recurrent UTIs in kidney transplant patients.
The conversation covers practical implementation challenges and lessons for phage therapy practitioners, and discusses her vision for a centralized US phage repository and manufacturing center to reduce the current 6-12 month delays in accessing treatment.
Here’s a taste of what we covered:
1. 🧫 Why patient selection is crucial: not all infections benefit equally from phage therapy
2. 🏥 Why phage scientists and clinicians must work together from day one
3. 🧪 Learning from early studies to create pragmatic, enrollable protocols
4. ⌛ The challenge of long-established biofilms in chronic infections like LVAD bacteremia
5. 💉 Why recurrent UTIs in transplant patients represent the “lowest hanging fruit”
6. 🔬 How Dr. Aslam designed her NIH-funded clinical trial for recurrent UTIs in kidney transplant patients
7. 🌐 The urgent need for centralized phage production in the US to reduce treatment delays
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Phage Therapy and Dr. Saima Aslam
02:11 Early Experiences and Lessons in Phage Therapy
05:27 Criteria for Patient Selection in Phage Therapy
09:14 Challenges in Phage Therapy: Availability and Effectiveness
12:31 Collaboration and Research in Phage Therapy
24:08 Bottlenecks in Phage Therapy Development
36:07 Future Directions and Hopes for Phage Therapy
Learn more:
Saima’s team is now enrolling for their kidney transplant phage clinical trial! (https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06409819)
A recent paper by Saima and her team:
Phage Therapy in Lung Transplantation: Current Status and Future Possibilities (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37932113/)
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