Bacteriophages

9 snips

Aug 1, 2024

Guest

Martha Clokie, a microbiology professor and director of the Centre for Phage Research, James Ebdon, an environmental microbiology expert, and Claas Kirchhelle, a historian focused on phage history, dive into the fascinating world of bacteriophages. They discuss how these viruses target bacteria, offering hope against antibiotic resistance. The guests elaborate on the historical significance and potential medical applications of phages, including their role in disease tracking and environmental impacts, while highlighting the urgent need for further research.

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ANECDOTE

Hankin's Observation

In 1896, Ernest Hankin observed cholera bacteria dying in Ganges River water but not in boiled water.
He lacked a modern virus concept, but his observation hinted at phages.

ANECDOTE

D'Hérelle's Discovery

Félix d'Hérelle, lacking formal microbiology training, researched phages during World War I.
Investigating a Shigella outbreak, he noticed filtered stool samples clearing bacterial cultures.

ANECDOTE

Eliava's Institute

George Eliava, a Georgian scientist, collaborated with d'Hérelle on phages.
He established the Eliava Institute in Tbilisi to develop phage therapies but was later executed in 1937.

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most abundant lifeform on Earth: the viruses that 'eat' bacteria. Early in the 20th century, scientists noticed that something in their Petri dishes was making bacteria disappear and they called these bacteriophages, things that eat bacteria. From studying these phages, it soon became clear that they offered countless real or potential benefits for understanding our world, from the tracking of diseases to helping unlock the secrets of DNA to treatments for long term bacterial infections. With further research, they could be an answer to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.

With

Martha Clokie Director for the Centre for Phage Research and Professor of Microbiology at the University of Leicester

James Ebdon Professor of Environmental Microbiology at the University of Brighton

And

Claas Kirchhelle Historian and Chargé de Recherche at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research’s CERMES3 Unit in Paris.

Producer: Simon Tillotson

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

Reading list:

James Ebdon, ‘Tackling sources of contamination in water: The age of phage’ (Microbiologist, Society for Applied Microbiology, Vol 20.1, 2022)

Thomas Häusler, Viruses vs. Superbugs: A Solution to the Antibiotics Crisis? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)

Tom Ireland, The Good Virus: The Untold Story of Phages: The Mysterious Microbes that Rule Our World, Shape Our Health and Can Save Our Future (Hodder Press, 2024)

Claas Kirchhelle and Charlotte Kirchhelle, ‘Northern Normal–Laboratory Networks, Microbial Culture Collections, and Taxonomies of Power (1939-2000)’ (SocArXiv Papers, 2024)

Dmitriy Myelnikov, ‘An alternative cure: the adoption and survival of bacteriophage therapy in the USSR, 1922–1955’ (Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 73, no. 4, 2018)

Forest Rohwer, Merry Youle, Heather Maughan and Nao Hisakawa, Life in our Phage World: A Centennial Field Guide to Earth’s most Diverse Inhabitants (Wholon, 2014)

Steffanie Strathdee and Thomas Patterson (2019) The Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug: A Memoir (Hachette Books, 2020)

William C. Summers, Félix d`Herelle and the Origins of Molecular Biology (Yale University Press, 1999)

William C. Summers, The American Phage Group: Founders of Molecular Biology (University Press, 2023)