We attended the latest edition of the Bacteriophage Therapy Summit in Boston with our CTO, Pablo Cifuentes, as a presenter and moderator, as well as the presence of our CEO, Hans Pieringer, and our Heads of Molecular Diagnostics and Research Projects & Phages, Soledad Ulloa and Nicolás Cifuentes, respectively.
The event brought together various companies at different stages of development in the areas of human and animal health, and we can say that PhageLab is among the most advanced in both scientific and commercial terms, with the tremendous advantage of having a huge repository not only of phages but also of bacteria.
Today, we reflect on the experiences of Soledad and Nicolás during their time in Boston.
Soledad Ulloa
Head of Molecular Diagnostics at PhageLab
During my participation in the 6th Bacteriophage Therapy Summit 2024, the development stages of other companies in the bacteriophage industry were presented.
Results in humans showed that phages work and are an excellent complement to antibiotic therapy, enhancing the reduction or elimination of bacteria in some diseases.
There was also discussion about genetic engineering being applied in developing new phages. However, its application may be more complex today because, ultimately, they are genetically modified “organisms” and generally have less market acceptance.
All this leads me to believe that PhageLab is heading in the right direction, as we work with a large collection of unmodified phages obtained from nature. We seek the potential of each of them for our products, and field results show that our technology works.
Nicolás Cifuentes Muñoz
Head of Research Projects & Phages at PhageLab
I leave with a very positive perception of this event on phage-based treatments. Although the conference focused on the use of phages in human health, we took away several lessons.
PhageLab’s scientific capabilities are often equal to or greater than those of companies involved in human health. The assays we conduct to generate new cocktails are the same as those currently used in human pharma to evaluate cocktails, such as liquid co-culture assays, phage-antibiotic synergy assays, bacterial biofilm assays, etc.
The struggles of human health companies are similar to ours, mainly regulatory and phage stability issues. What the phage industry needs, and what would benefit everyone, is for a company to have an irrefutable success in phase 3 clinical trials in humans. When this happens, most companies using phages will benefit.
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