Project description
Profiling a mysterious natural 'warrior' to counter antimicrobial resistance
Complex battles between single-celled organisms – bacteria and the viruses that 'eat' them (bacteriophages) – take place all around us largely unbeknownst to the average person. As antimicrobial resistance creates an ever-growing challenge to public health, harnessing these natural bacterial killers is a promising route to new therapeutics. The problem is that, although bacteriophages are the most abundant organisms in the biosphere, we have isolated very few of them and have very little idea about how they work. All that is about to change thanks to the EU-funded PHARMS project. Scientists have ambitious plans to find all possible phages of a resistant bacterial isolate, characterise the mechanisms of action, and use the new-found knowledge to design a toolkit of phage-based therapies.
Fields of science
- natural sciencesbiological sciencessynthetic biology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyvirology
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseases
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsantibiotics
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug resistanceantibiotic resistance
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
Host institution
85764 Neuherberg
Germany
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Beneficiaries (1)
85764 Neuherberg
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