Would you consider the phage you researched a potential replacement for antibiotics, or rather an aid to the overall fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria?
Our phage would only serve as an aid since we are still learning more and more about phages and there are many things keeping us from fully depending on phages so we can say for certain that the phage we researched would not be able to replace antibiotic-resistant bacteria but it will be a great aid for when antibiotic-resistance reaches a critical point and we need to do something to prevent full resistance or immunity to antibiotics.
How specifically could your temperate phage work to remedy the problem of antibiotic-resistant infection? Does any of the data you gathered suggest that it may be a good candidate?
I am not entirely sure whether our phage could work to combat the drug-resistant bacteria considering our phage has not gone through the sequencing step. This will probably be something I will not be able to pursue further in the future but if I ever get the chance to sequence the phage then we will know for sure whether or not our phage could be used in phage therapy. The only evidence pointing to our phage being a good candidate would be our quality control gel which was ran with our phage’s DNA to confirm the quality of our phage which was able to pass the requirement for a good quality phage.
After PCR we would proceed to sequence our phage and find out its complete genomic structure. With the structure we can mark down which specific bacterial species our phage can infect. There are other steps for general safety which I am not fully knowledgeable about but after it has been thoroughly tested and there were no safety risks then our phage is ready to be used for phage therapy which has its own steps as well just to precisely administer the right amount depending on the concentration.
Do you think your phage could eliminate all the antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and if so, will normal antibiotics start working again as all the resistant bacteria are gone?
Our phage is only a tiny piece of the puzzle. Phage in general could not pull off such a feat due to certain limitations. A big limitation is that phage has to be sequenced so we can record the biology and know the genome structure of the phage, as simple as it might seem it is a very expensive process. Without the structure, phage cannot infect a host cell as efficiently and instead might lead to other problems. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are also rapidly increasing and without a way to mass produce phage to combat the high numbers of bacteria, I believe that our phage will not be eliminate all species of bacteria but if there was a way to mass produce effective phage then there is a possibility of making antibiotics as effective and reliable as they should be.
Would you consider the phage you researched a potential replacement for antibiotics, or rather an aid to the overall fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria?
Our phage would only serve as an aid since we are still learning more and more about phages and there are many things keeping us from fully depending on phages so we can say for certain that the phage we researched would not be able to replace antibiotic-resistant bacteria but it will be a great aid for when antibiotic-resistance reaches a critical point and we need to do something to prevent full resistance or immunity to antibiotics.
How specifically could your temperate phage work to remedy the problem of antibiotic-resistant infection? Does any of the data you gathered suggest that it may be a good candidate?
I am not entirely sure whether our phage could work to combat the drug-resistant bacteria considering our phage has not gone through the sequencing step. This will probably be something I will not be able to pursue further in the future but if I ever get the chance to sequence the phage then we will know for sure whether or not our phage could be used in phage therapy. The only evidence pointing to our phage being a good candidate would be our quality control gel which was ran with our phage’s DNA to confirm the quality of our phage which was able to pass the requirement for a good quality phage.
After running a PCR, what would be your next steps? Where would you go from here if you were to try and implement its potential antibiotic effects?
After PCR we would proceed to sequence our phage and find out its complete genomic structure. With the structure we can mark down which specific bacterial species our phage can infect. There are other steps for general safety which I am not fully knowledgeable about but after it has been thoroughly tested and there were no safety risks then our phage is ready to be used for phage therapy which has its own steps as well just to precisely administer the right amount depending on the concentration.
Do you think your phage could eliminate all the antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and if so, will normal antibiotics start working again as all the resistant bacteria are gone?
Our phage is only a tiny piece of the puzzle. Phage in general could not pull off such a feat due to certain limitations. A big limitation is that phage has to be sequenced so we can record the biology and know the genome structure of the phage, as simple as it might seem it is a very expensive process. Without the structure, phage cannot infect a host cell as efficiently and instead might lead to other problems. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are also rapidly increasing and without a way to mass produce phage to combat the high numbers of bacteria, I believe that our phage will not be eliminate all species of bacteria but if there was a way to mass produce effective phage then there is a possibility of making antibiotics as effective and reliable as they should be.