S28: Bacteriophage for Microbial Control

Bacteriophages are the natural predator of bacteria and were discovered in the early 20^th century.  They were hoped to be an important tool in the treatment of disease however, with the advent of chemical antibiotics in the early 40’s, bacteriophages were relegated to a back seat in the pharmaceutical realm.  Bacteriophage have performed many important functions as a model organism in basic lab research.  The study of phage led to DNA being identified as the information storage molecule as well as parsing out the genetic code.  Many of the tools used in the field of molecular biology were developed through the research done using bacteriophage.

Bacteriophage are viruses that infect only bacteria and take over the machinery to make more virus particles, lytic phage destroy the bacteria in the process.  These viruses are extremely specific (some of them will not react outside of a particular pathovar), which is both a positive and a negative in the use of these phage as an antibacterial agent.  The fact that bacteriophage are a genetic organism capable of overcoming resistance is a major advantage over antibiotics.

With the dramatic increase of antibiotic resistant organisms and the recent demand for natural solutions, bacteriophage have once again become an important emerging technology in our fight against pathogens.  OmniLytics currently has regulatory approval and products on the market which treat diseases of tomato and pepper plants as well as bacteriophages targeted against the human pathogen E. coli O157:H7 (a Salmonella product is in development).