Interesting research! What sort of benefit would come from being able to categorize the phage into a particular cluster as you outline in your future directions? Does this provide any benefit to the greater scheme of things?
Phage which share a cluster have similar properties. I think if a phage is known to infect a specific bacteria you can begin looking for phage within that same cluster to have a better chance at finding additional effective phage for a phage therapy cocktail.
Phage are effective against pathogens that are antibiotic resistant in the sense that they are not antibiotics, so the antibiotic resistant bacteria may be infected by a phage with the right structure to infect those bacteria. There isn’t anything special about antibiotic resistant bacteria other than that antibiotics don’t work on them, so phage are an additional option.
Would you categorize your future directions for the project as more long-term or more short-term goals? And how would your research benefit specifically from determining the cluster?
Our future directions are more short-term, since they hypothetically could have been completed within this semester. Knowing a phage’s cluster is useful because the phage can be compared to similar phage.
Interesting research! What sort of benefit would come from being able to categorize the phage into a particular cluster as you outline in your future directions? Does this provide any benefit to the greater scheme of things?
Phage which share a cluster have similar properties. I think if a phage is known to infect a specific bacteria you can begin looking for phage within that same cluster to have a better chance at finding additional effective phage for a phage therapy cocktail.
How are bacteriophage effective against infections that are antibiotic resistant?
Phage are effective against pathogens that are antibiotic resistant in the sense that they are not antibiotics, so the antibiotic resistant bacteria may be infected by a phage with the right structure to infect those bacteria. There isn’t anything special about antibiotic resistant bacteria other than that antibiotics don’t work on them, so phage are an additional option.
Is there an ideal cluster that you would want to classify your phage within, and how does that cluster impact the use of bacteriophages in treatment?
I’m not sure if any cluster is ideal, it’s just useful to know the phage’s cluster since then it can be compared to other phage within that cluster.
Would you categorize your future directions for the project as more long-term or more short-term goals? And how would your research benefit specifically from determining the cluster?
Our future directions are more short-term, since they hypothetically could have been completed within this semester. Knowing a phage’s cluster is useful because the phage can be compared to similar phage.