First phage therapy center in the U.S. signals growing acceptance
Phage therapy went out of fashion in the U.S. decades ago. Now a new center at the University of California, San Diego wants to revive it to combat antibiotic-resistant infections.
When her husband was dying of a drug-resistant infection, Steffanie Strathdee had a last-ditch idea. They could try treating him with a virus that would kill the bacteria colonizing his insides. The method, called phage therapy, was popular in former Soviet republics, but had mostly been abandoned in the U.S. Researchers had to hunt for the right virus in Texas pigsties and sewage treatment plants.
That was 2016. Phage therapy is still very much experimental — but it’s come a long way since then. New companies have popped up, hoping to get approval to sell these viruses as drugs. A has come together, lab
