How would you conduct research moving forward comparing the effectiveness of B cluster phages (including your own) as an antibiotic alternative, given their similarities?
Hello Max, we have been thinking about using a wide variety of pathogens, since we know that phages within the same cluster have similar morphology and genomic sequence, thus they should also have similar host range. We can also do the genomic sequence (we did not have enough time to perform this due to COVID) to accurately determine to which cluster our phage belongs to.
Hello Katherine, this is very important since we can combine molecular technologies such as CRISPR/Cas to treat diseases caused by double-strand breaks in cancerous cells. This could increase survival rates in newly diagnosed cancers.
Thank you Makenzie! I would say that phages would be more effective since bacteria are less likely to develop resistance compared to antibiotics. There will be a point where antibiotics will be no longer able to inhibit bacterial growth. However, the use of phages is still in development since we do not know the effects in the human body. Also, phages are very specific to their host and we might need to use more than one type of phage to treat an infection.
How would you conduct research moving forward comparing the effectiveness of B cluster phages (including your own) as an antibiotic alternative, given their similarities?
Hello Max, we have been thinking about using a wide variety of pathogens, since we know that phages within the same cluster have similar morphology and genomic sequence, thus they should also have similar host range. We can also do the genomic sequence (we did not have enough time to perform this due to COVID) to accurately determine to which cluster our phage belongs to.
How can this research help us in the scientific community in the bigger picture?
Hello Katherine, this is very important since we can combine molecular technologies such as CRISPR/Cas to treat diseases caused by double-strand breaks in cancerous cells. This could increase survival rates in newly diagnosed cancers.
Good job on your presentation, how would you compare the effectiveness of phages and antibiotics in the contest of this experiment?
Thank you Makenzie! I would say that phages would be more effective since bacteria are less likely to develop resistance compared to antibiotics. There will be a point where antibiotics will be no longer able to inhibit bacterial growth. However, the use of phages is still in development since we do not know the effects in the human body. Also, phages are very specific to their host and we might need to use more than one type of phage to treat an infection.