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Phages, on the Rocks: Development of a Bacteriophage Cocktail Infecting Pseudomonas chlororaphis 14B11

head shot of Clara Becker

狈补尘别:听Clara Becker
惭补箩辞谤:听Biology
础诲惫颈蝉辞谤:听Stephanie Strand; William Morgan (second reader)

Infections caused by antibiotic resistant organisms are predicted to pose one of the biggest public health threats in the twenty-first century. As a result, alternative therapies are of increasing interest. Phage therapy is a promising alternative to conventional antibiotics and involves administering bacteriophages (鈥減hages鈥) to lyse and kill bacterial organisms while leaving human cells unharmed. 聽However, when phages are administered, it is possible that a subset of phage-resistant organisms will emerge, rendering phage as a medicine ineffective. To prevent uncontrolled phage resistance from emerging over the course of phage therapy, phages may be combined in a cocktail of several phages. Several different strategies to develop phage cocktails have been proposed. Consequently, the aim of my thesis was to evaluate two previously described phage cocktail development methods to constrain the growth of Pseudomonas chlororaphis 14B11, a nonpathogenic environmental bacterial isolate. The first approach, the 鈥淪tep-by-Step鈥 approach, incorporates phages that infect the organism responsible for an infection and phages that infect its probable phage-resistant mutants. 聽The second approach, the 鈥渉ost range鈥 approach, incorporates random combinations of unique phage isolates that infect the bacterial isolate causing an infection. My work revealed that phage cocktails formulated using the 鈥淪tep-by-Step鈥 approach were more effective at constraining the growth of P. chlororaphis than phage cocktails formulated using the 鈥渉ost range鈥 approach. My in vitro model indicates that the 鈥淪tep-by-Step鈥 method of phage cocktail development shows potential to constrain bacterial growth, and similar strategies may be applied in therapeutic settings against pathogenic bacterial organisms.

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Posted in Comments Enabled, Independent Study, Symposium 2022 on April 26, 2022.


4 responses to “Phages, on the Rocks: Development of a Bacteriophage Cocktail Infecting Pseudomonas chlororaphis 14B11”

  1. May says:

    Congratulation CLARA!!!! I’ll be there to see your poster 馃槈

  2. Emilee Haines says:

    Clara, your work is amazing and so fascinating!! Congratulations!

  3. Rachel Jones says:

    Congratulations Clara!! I’m so proud of you!!

  4. Zoe says:

    Congratulations, Clara!! I am obsessed with your project’s title btw