Phage therapy in gonorrhea treatment

04 01 2024

We would like to invite you to the institute seminar: on Monday 15th of January at 2 pm in 102B room, Magdalena Pełka from the Department of Molecular Virology will give a seminar entitled Development of phage-based tool with the potential to treat antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea.

Abstract:

Widespread, not always justified use of antibiotics has resulted in the development of resistance mechanisms among bacteria. The need to develop new strategies to combat pathogenic bacteria is the result of increasing antibiotic resistance. A promising approach is phage therapy – the use of bacteriophages or their proteins as antibacterial therapeutics. Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a dangerous pathogen, an etiological agent of gonorrhea. The WHO has designated it as multidrug-resistant after recognizing strains resistant to so-called “last resort” antibiotics.

The goal of my doctoral thesis will be development of phage-based tool for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea. Several research approaches will be used: (i) wastewater screening fo lytic phages infecting N. gonorrhoeae, (ii) typing, expression and evaluation of the lytic potential of prophage proteins, (iii) removal of prophages from the N. gonorrhoeae genome and obtaining a specific phage by genetic engineering tools.