Shows
PodovirusAI-generated phages that work: ChatGPT for phage biologists?Can AI design living organisms from scratch? Samuel King and Claudia Driscoll from the Arc Institute used genome language models to generate functional phages—and 16 of them actually worked in the lab. Not only that, they killed bacteria equally or better than the natural phage the team used as a template. In this episode, we dig into how they did it, what it means for phage research, and why this could be a new way to explore evolution and design genomes.What we covered:• How genome language models work (ChatGPT, but f...
2025-11-131h 03PodovirusHow to get successful outcomes with phage therapy: Saima Aslam, MD, MS"When I first started, I was treating anything and everything in terms of ‘this is highly drug resistant and it's failed’. But I think I have a clearer idea now, at least clinically, where I think phage would be beneficial, rather than all comers.”What does it take to achieve an 85% success rate with phage therapy? We talk to Dr. Saima Aslam, MD, MS, a Professor of Medicine at UC San Diego and the clinical lead of IPATH (Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics), about her strategies for successful phage treatment.
2025-08-1554 minPodovirusDr. Marisa Azad, MD, PhD: Behind Canada's first prosthetic joint treatment with phage therapy"It's unacceptable to just tell this poor patient, there's nothing I can do to help you... That's when I thought, okay, well, what about kind of pushing the boundaries a bit here and thinking about phage therapy?" - Dr. Marisa AzadJoin us for an inspiring conversation with Dr. Marisa Azad, a clinician-scientist at The Ottawa Hospital who is pioneering the treatment of chronic infections using phage therapy. Dr. Azad shares her journey from microbiology PhD to orthopedic infectious disease specialist, and how a desperate patient case led her to become the first in...
2025-06-2748 minPodovirusHow to navigate regulatory limbo: a Canadian phage therapy CEO's playbook"Phages are not drugs. Every time they say, 'Did you go through regulatory?' I say, 'I can do regulatory, but I'm not a drug.' There's 145 components of the regulatory requirements that I don't fit in."When your health innovation doesn't fit existing regulatory boxes, how do you build a business? Steven Theriault, CEO of Cytophage, has spent 9 years learning to navigate Canada's regulatory maze for phage therapy. From being told "we don't know" by government officials to raising $24M and treating patients, Steven shares his hard-won playbook for building in uncharted regulatory...
2025-06-0259 minPodovirusWhy can't patients access phage therapy? Does FDA need to change, or do patients just need a voice?"This feels just like the early days of the HIV crisis. People are dying, you're not hearing about it. We need a group like ACT UP to bring this to the public. We're not going to get phage therapy until people start demanding we have it." On this episode, we talk to phage therapy patient advocate Chris Shaffer about how he fought for access to phage therapy to save his own life, and how it's led him to advocate on behalf of other patients being told there's "nothing left" for their infections.
2025-05-091h 12PodovirusFinally, phase 2 data! Inside BiomX's successful phage therapy trial with CEO Jonathan Solomon"Finally, finally we have Phase 2 data. We put a dent in the theory that phage therapy doesn't work. Maybe it does work. Maybe it's worth taking a risk."Jonathan Solomon joins Jessica Sacher and Joe Campbell on the Podovirus Podcast to discuss BiomX's exciting Phase 2 clinical trial results, where they used bacteriophages to treat diabetic foot osteomyelitis (DFO). With 40% of DFO patients facing amputation, this is an area of massive unmet need. Jonathan shares how their trial was designed (he credits the team at Adaptive Phage Therapeutics, which began the trial prior to its...
2025-05-0258 minPodovirusDoes every scientist need an AI co-scientist? How two professors solved a years-long viral mystery"I was so biased. I knew too much and that's why we couldn't see the obvious answer that was right in front of us for years."In this episode of the Podovirus Podcast, we explore the intersection of AI and phage biology with Professors José Penadés and Tiago Costa from Imperial College London. They share their recent discovery about phage-inducible chromosomal islands (PICIs) and how Google's new (not-yet-released) AI co-scientist tool independently reached the same conclusions they had spent years working toward—revealing how tailless phage capsids can bind with different phage tails to e...
2025-04-091h 09PodovirusWhat's the business case for phage therapy?“Getting our foot through the door to any VC... As soon as they hear we're infectious disease, their eyes kind of get big. And then they hear we're antibacterial, their eyes get bigger. And then they hear we're not small molecule, it's like all the alarm bells are ringing.”In this episode, we sit down with Amanda Burkardt (CEO) and Mayukh Das (COO) of Phiogen Pharmaceuticals, a new entrant in the phage therapy space, to tackle one of the field's most pressing questions: can phage therapy succeed as a business where antibiotics have struggled? Draw...
2025-02-2151 minPodovirusHow to bring phages to market: Intralytix's food-to-pharma strategy"Somebody's father, friend, husband just passed away in the most developed country in the world... from a simple infection that probably could have been treated in Georgia."
In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Alexander (Sandro) Sulakvelidze to explore his journey in growing a phage therapy company from scratch, from food to human therapy. Growing up in the Republic of Georgia, phage therapy was a normal thing for Sandro; when he came to the US and saw people dying of preventable infections, he founded Intralytix. This was 26 years ago.
2024-12-1959 minPodovirusGina Suh, MD: What it's really like to treat patients with phage therapyWhat's it like to be a doctor treating patients with phage therapy in the US today?
Dr. Gina Suh, Mayo Clinic infectious disease physician, tells us:
- How she established phage therapy as an option for her patients at Mayo
- How phages have helped her patients
- What's been hardest
- Where she's hopeful
- Where things have gotten worse
- What's next
This episode, I'm joined by my phage friend Joe Campbell (former NIH program...
2024-11-081h 12PodovirusJesus Fernandez-Rodriguez: How Eligo Bioscience edits gut bacteria with phagesWelcome to the Podovirus podcast, episode 3! In this episode, I talk with Jesus Fernandez-Rodriguez from Eligo Bioscience, a Paris-based biotech company pioneering microbiome editing using modified bacteriophages.
We talk about Eligo’s recent Nature publication, “In situ targeted base editing of bacteria in the mouse gut”, how it works, and what the team is thinking of doing with it.
💡 Takeaways:
- Eligo Biosciences has developed a base editing technology using modified phages to precisely modify populations of E. coli and Klebsiella in the mouse gut microbiome without killing them.
- Microbiome hype is not over yet!
- Beyond us...
2024-09-2057 minPodovirusGetting phage research funded — Joe Campbell reflects on a career at NIAIDWelcome to the Podovirus podcast, episode 2!
In this episode, Jessica talks with Dr. Joe Campbell, who recently retired as a program officer at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Joe played a key role in shaping phage research funding and policy during his tenure at NIAID. He reflects on his career, the evolution of phage therapy research, and shares insights into the grant application process.
Takeaways
- Phage therapy funding at NIAID has evolved over time; it used to be lumped in with antibiotics, but Joe and his...
2024-08-0846 minPodovirusWhy all phage researchers need to be in Australia this JulyThis is a very special week. We’re launching the first episode of our Podovirus podcast!
We started this on a whim (I wanted to explore this format, since I love talking to phage people and I love podcasts; and Jan came up with a punny name we couldn't pass up).
Ok, episode 1! I'll be honest — I stayed in science because of how much I love conferences. My phage phriendships are some of my favourites in life, and annual conferences have always pushed my science forward more than anything else.
It was so much...
2024-05-0336 min