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The first international phage biotechnology conference, held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, is expected to lead to the formation of an International Phage Society and trade body to represent the interests of a wide variety of scientists, clinicians and biotechnology businesses working with bacteriophages. These organisations would represent and promote the interests of members in areas such as regulatory affairs, funding, and raising commercial and public awareness of these smallest forms of life.

Bacteriophages are viruses which only infect bacteria, and recently an explosion of interest in their use for a variety of medical and industrial applications has occurred. For example, phage therapy uses phages to kill bacteria resistant to antibiotics, such as MRSA in hospital infections and listeria on foodstuffs.

Initiated by Edinburgh firm Big DNA Ltd, which is developing vaccines which use bacteriophages as their delivery vehicle, international delegates voted the event a huge success, and one of the best conferences they had ever attended, covering a wide range of topics from pure research to industrial and medical applications. Organised by Dr Jason Clark from Big DNA, over 150 delegates took part from a very wide range of backgrounds and countries.

Dr John March, chief executive of Big DNA said: ”My hope is that the wide range of scientists, clinicians and biotechnologists currently researching or putting phages to practical use are able to pool their knowledge and expertise to accelerate progress towards further development in this exciting field of biotechnology.  The same basic issues affect researchers and industrialists from many different disciplines. I firmly believe that by collaborating together, we can all reach our scientific goals faster, cheaper and better, for the good of mankind.”

It is hoped that a Bacteriophage Society will be set up as an outcome of this conference which would assist those involved in R&D and that a trade organisation could also be formed by those involved in clinical trials of several phage based products which help towards achieving regulatory approval.

A bacteriophage is a virus which only infects bacteria and like antibiotics, can kill the bacteria, especially in situations where there is resistance to antibiotics.  From the 1930s to the 1970s there was great interest in phages, but that waned with the development of antibiotics. But more recently, it has been recognised that bacteriophages have several potential applications in the modern biotechnology industry – they have been proposed as delivery vehicles for protein and DNA vaccines; as gene therapy delivery vehicles; as alternatives to antibiotics; for the detection of pathogenic bacteria; and as tools for screening libraries of proteins, peptides or antibodies.   This diversity, and the ease of their manipulation and production, means that they have potential uses in research, therapeutics and manufacturing in both the biotechnology and medical fields.   That diversity was reflected in the talks at the conference which stimulated both discussion and more importantly, collaboration between delegates.

Dr John March continued: “Normally those working with phages in the fields of cancer, genes or immunology would be attending conferences in those fields, and would never normally meet. We brought together these people for the first time, from diverse scientific backgrounds who can share ideas, processes and the same basic principles in their work, from very different fields across the globe. Although delegates and speakers had very different objectives from each other, we share the same basic principles in our work, such as manufacturing, licencing, regulatory approvals, and I wanted everyone to have the chance to share the use of phage technology and our common themes.”

If you would like more information on the International Phage Society when it is set up, please contact:  john.march@bigdna.co.uk

ENDS

This information from Carol Anderson, The Business tel 0131 718 6022,
mobile tel 07836 546 256

Editors notes:

Big DNA Ltd was set up in 2007 by Dr John March, as a spin out company from the Moredun Research Institute at Edinburgh University, to further develop and commercialise new vaccination technologies. Based at Roslin BioCentre, the company currently employs 7 people

Edinburgh International Phage Conference – was held from Saturday 26th July to Tuesday 29th July at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. Speakers included David Harper of BioControl UK, Renata Pasqualini from the University of Texas who works with phages in cancer treatments, Isabella Saggio of University La Sapienza Rome Italy, who uses humanised bacteriophages for gene transfer, Andrzej Gorski from Phage Therapy Unit Poland, Steven Hagens from the EBI Food Safety, Netherlands. Full details at www.edinburghphageconference.org