201: Fighting Antimicrobial Resistance: How AI Cuts Phage Therapy Access from 6 Months to 5 Days with José Bila - Part 1

Antibiotic resistance isn’t just a looming problem. It’s a global crisis. Every year, more than one million people die directly from resistant infections, and another 5 million die indirectly. Routine infections are becoming life-threatening, and healthcare systems worldwide are under pressure.

Despite decades of warnings, pharmaceutical solutions are falling behind, while “superbugs” continue to outpace new drug development. If trends continue, by 2050, antibiotic resistance could claim 10 million lives annually and cost the world $1 trillion.

Meet José Luis Bila, a chemist-turned-biotech-founder, who transformed personal tragedy into a mission to disrupt this deadly status quo. After losing both parents to antibiotic-resistant infections, José dedicated his career to the search for targeted, effective alternatives. Now, as Co-Founder and CEO of Precise Health SA, he’s building AI-powered bacteriophage therapy platforms that promise to revolutionize personalized infection treatments and outmaneuver today’s most stubborn bacteria.

Why tune into this episode? Here are three standouts from José’s story and his technical playbook:

• José's personal story: Losing both parents to antibiotic resistance and its impact on his career path. (00:00)
• Scope of the antibiotic resistance crisis: Global deaths, indirect impacts, and economic cost projections. (06:29)
• Why big pharma is pulling out of antibiotic development and why innovation may come from smaller startups. (07:29)
• Why antibiotic resistance persists: Static nature of antibiotics versus adaptable bacteria, and misuse of antibiotics. (09:45)
• Introduction to bacteriophage therapy and its specificity challenges. (11:46)
• The current slow, manual process for matching phages to infections and its limitations in urgent clinical settings. (13:08)
• How machine learning is being used at Precise Health to rapidly identify and source the right phages using genetic information. (16:58)
• The potential to reduce phage matching and delivery time from months to just days, and how smart batching and regional surveillance improve economics. (17:23)

José Luis Bila’s journey shows the power of science driven by purpose. Through persistence, he’s pioneering AI-driven phage therapy - offering precision, hope, and a potential lifeline in the fight against antibiotic-resistant infections.

Connect with José Luis Bila:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/josé-luis-bila-phd-3b08a5a7

Precise Health SA: www.precisehealth.io

Interested in how scientists are fighting superbugs? Learn how phage therapy and smart bioprocess design are helping outmaneuver drug-resistant pathogens. Check out this interview with one of our previous guests!

Episodes 187-188: From Biology Is Messy to Designable: The Smart Bioprocessing Transformation with Carmen Jungo Rhême

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