Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most pressing global health issues of the 21st Century. With existing antibiotics losing potency and no new classes of antibiotics in the pipeline, alternatives to antibiotics are urgently needed. In 2016, Drs. Strathdee was involved in a remarkable case where she and her colleagues revived a hundred-year-old forgotten cure –phage therapy—which saved her husband’s life from a deadly superbug infection. Since then, UC San Diego faculty have been involved in the use of phage therapy to successfully treat multi-drug resistant bacterial infections in over 40 other cases domestically and internationally, including the first use of a genetically modified phage cocktail to treat a systemic Mycobacterium abscessus infection. In 2018, UCSD’s Chancellor provided seed funding to launch the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH), the first dedicated phage therapy center in North America. Several other programs have now launched across the US, Western Europe, Australia, and the UK. Several clinical trials of phage therapy are now underway, with phage therapy being regarded as one of the most promising alternative and adjunct to antibiotics. Strathdee will share the details of her story, which was the subject of a memoir she wrote with her husband, The Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save her Husband from a Deadly Superbug, as well as challenges and future prospects for phage therapy.
This presentation will be a live speaker presenting via Zoom.
Speaker:
Stephanie Strathdee, PhD
Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences
Harold Simon Distinguished Professor
UCSD Department of Medicine Co-Director, Center for Innovative Phage Applications & Therapeutics (IPATH)
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