PhageCast

News and interviews on the phage field.
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We will give you a merge between novel phage research and the personal experiences of people in the field. Learn phage science and how to navigate your careers, your life and do research! Brought to you by David Sáez, Maria Sequeira Lopes and Alexandre Lima. Enjoy the show! For comments and inquiries reach out to phagecast@gmail.com

  1. 6D AGO

    Tailocin engineering - Phage Bites: Célia Pas

    In today’s episode of Phagecast, we interview Célia Pas from ACD Pharma, to dive into the world of tailocins and how they can be engineered as highly specific antibacterial tools, work that she carried out as PhD student in Yves Briers lab. We start with an introduction to Célia and her research environment, before moving into a detailed discussion of her recent work using a VersaTile engineering approach to reprogram the specificity of R2-type tailocins. Throughout the episode, we cover: What tailocins are, how they differ from phages and endolysins... Why targetting Gram-negative pathogens like E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. What the VersaTile technique is, how it works, and why it offers a flexible and powerful platform for engineering tailocin specificity... and much more! We close the episode with Célia’s personal experience as a PhD student, discussing the challenges of this work, what she is most proud of, and her transition toward industry—along with practical advice for early-career researchers considering similar paths.

    23 min

  2. JAN 13

    Phage and complement system - Phage Bites: Carmen Chen

    Today we interview Carmen Chen, MSCA PhD student in the University of Finland and Humanitas University in Milan, she tells us about her last publication "Antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii can be killed by a combination of bacteriophages and complement", where we discuss how bacteriophages interact with the human complement system to kill antibiotic-resistant A. baumannii. We hear about the key experiments and findings of the study, including serum/phage preconditioning, the role of capsular and phase variation in clinical strains, and how these factors influence phage susceptibility, among others! Stay till the end if you want to hear about Carmens´ experience as a PhD student, what was most challenging and other insights from the chat! If you want to participate contact us through any of our platforms and we will be happy to have a chat with you!

    22 min

  3. 12/03/2025

    27.- Martha Clokie: tackling C. difficile, Salmonella, and the path to phage products in the UK

    In this episode, we talk with Professor Martha Clokie, Professor at the University of Leicester and Director of the new Becky Mayer Centre for Phage Research. She explains her work leading the Centre and its mission under a One Health framework. We discuss why phage applications in animals—such as poultry —often progress faster than in humans, the regulatory path for veterinary products and the current status of phage therapy in the UK, what recent conversations with regulators have clarified, whether any patients have been treated, and how close the country is to seeing approved phage products. She then dives into her research on Clostridioides difficile, explaining why no strictly lytic phages have been identified to date, how endolysins fit into the picture, and the possible role of phages in the success of FMT therapies. Martha closes with insights from her career and advice for early-stage researchers entering the phage field. PhageCast 2025 is sponsored by PrecisionPhage: ⁠www.precisionphage.com ⁠⁠www.phagenomics.net⁠ Contact PrecisionPhage on LinkedIn!  PrecisionPhage is a Finland-based phage biotech, providing services worldwide:  🔹phage laboratory R&D services such as on-demand phage isolation  🔹licensing of bacteriophages against WHO priority pathogens  🔹ready-to-use and custom-made bioinformatics software for phage and host genome analysis.  Are you new to phage genome assembly and functional analysis, and would you like to be able to get them done using the latest methods but without the burden of coding or manual work?  PrecisionPhage welcomes you to get familiar with Phagenomics! Phagenomics is a web-based software providing automated phage genome assembly, annotation & analysis, as well as comparative genomics. The tool bundles phage bioinformatics in a user-friendly online platform, performing the work of a seasoned phage bioinformatician in an automated manner. Phagenomics is developed in-house by PrecisionPhage.  Try Phagenomics for free at ⁠www.phagenomics.net⁠ and sign up for a pro subscription trial.

    45 min
  4. 26.- Matti Jalasvuori: decoding phage dark matter with bioinformatics at PrecisionPhage

    11/03/2025

    26.- Matti Jalasvuori: decoding phage dark matter with bioinformatics at PrecisionPhage

    In this episode, we talk with Matti Jalasvuori, CEO and co-founder of PrecisionPhage, a Finland-based biotech advancing bioinformatics to make phage research more practical and scalable. Matti explains his daily work leading the company, staying close to the science while guiding development of new tools that make phage data easier to use for researchers and industry. He shares how PrecisionPhage began – from early genome analysis in his academic group to developing Phagenomics software, platforms that automate phagegenome assembly & annotation and qualitycontrol. Matti discusses how such tools can meet strict requirements for future GMP-level phage production and help address the long-standing challenge of phage “dark matter”, where many phage genes still have unknown functions. Beyond the technical side, Matti reflects on the process of starting a company, lessons from hisresearch on the origins of viruses, and what it means to bridge science and business. He closes with thoughtful advice for young scientists: stay curious, understand biology deeply, and choose which ideas are truly worth developing.

    39 min

  5. 10/01/2025

    25.- Rafael Pinilla Redondo: CRISPRs, Anti-CRISPRs, and Beyond.

    In today’s episode we interview Rafael Pinilla-Redondo, Group Leader of the Bacterial Immunity research group at the Section of Microbiology, University of Copenhagen. We start the conversation with an overview of his research, he tells us how his team looks into the interplay between phages and bacterial defense systems. We also talk about the different approaches to uncover and characterize bacterial immunity, from bioinformatic predictions to experimental phage–bacteria interactions, insights into CRISPR-Cas systems—particularly Type IV CRISPRs, CRISPRi systems and their counter-defenses like RNA-based anti-CRISPRs. The current big questions in bacterial immunity and what impacts this research could have on biotechnology and translational applications. Finally, Rafael shares his personal journey into the phage field, what excites him most about current research, his reflections on setbacks that turned into opportunities, and his advice for PhD students and early-career researchers. PhageCast 2025 is sponsored by PrecisionPhage: ⁠www.precisionphage.com ⁠⁠www.phagenomics.net⁠ Contact PrecisionPhage on LinkedIn!  PrecisionPhage is a Finland-based phage biotech, providing services worldwide:  🔹phage laboratory R&D services such as on-demand phage isolation  🔹licensing of bacteriophages against WHO priority pathogens  🔹ready-to-use and custom-made bioinformatics software for phage and host genome analysis.  Are you new to phage genome assembly and functional analysis, and would you like to be able to get them done using the latest methods but without the burden of coding or manual work?  PrecisionPhage welcomes you to get familiar with Phagenomics! Phagenomics is a web-based software providing automated phage genome assembly, annotation & analysis, as well as comparative genomics. The tool bundles phage bioinformatics in a user-friendly online platform, performing the work of a seasoned phage bioinformatician in an automated manner. Phagenomics is developed in-house by PrecisionPhage.  Try Phagenomics for free at ⁠www.phagenomics.net⁠ and sign up for a pro subscription trial.

    47 min

  6. 09/01/2025

    24.- Grégory Resch: phage-antibiotic combinations against endocarditis

    In today´s episode we interview Greg Resch, Senior Lecturer and Head of the laboratory of bacteriophages at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), and PI in the NCCR Microbiomes. We started the conversation asking about the latest results regarding the detection of single phage lysis using microfluidics. We also cover in this episode: - Some of his work with phage-antibiotic combinations against infective endocarditis, targeting staphylococcus aureus. - The effect of different antibiotics and phages in MSSA or MRSA strains from their studies, we cover how they also studied phage resistance of several bacteria recovered from those treatments... - Many more details on how glycosylation and its regulation affect phage susceptibility. Finally we also talk about regulations of phage therapy in Switzerland and Greg gave us an impressive overview of his career and gave some interesting tips and suggestions for people starting in the phage field. PhageCast 2025 is sponsored by PrecisionPhage: ⁠www.precisionphage.com ⁠⁠www.phagenomics.net⁠ Contact PrecisionPhage on LinkedIn!  PrecisionPhage is a Finland-based phage biotech, providing services worldwide:  🔹phage laboratory R&D services such as on-demand phage isolation  🔹licensing of bacteriophages against WHO priority pathogens  🔹ready-to-use and custom-made bioinformatics software for phage and host genome analysis.  Are you new to phage genome assembly and functional analysis, and would you like to be able to get them done using the latest methods but without the burden of coding or manual work?  PrecisionPhage welcomes you to get familiar with Phagenomics! Phagenomics is a web-based software providing automated phage genome assembly, annotation & analysis, as well as comparative genomics. The tool bundles phage bioinformatics in a user-friendly online platform, performing the work of a seasoned phage bioinformatician in an automated manner. Phagenomics is developed in-house by PrecisionPhage.  Try Phagenomics for free at ⁠www.phagenomics.net⁠ and sign up for a pro subscription trial.

    53 min

  7. 08/04/2025

    23.- Tristan Ferry: getting to 100 patients of phage therapy in France

    In this episode we speak with Tristan Ferry, one of the main drivers of Phage Therapy in France. We talk about how phage therapy is managed in France, we focus on how phages are used against implant associated infections, what are the pathogens involved and what is the best administration route, what they look for in phages and failed treatments and learnings. On the personal side we could hear a more personal view of his work, how it is to manage such responsibilities, financial pressures of the scientific system and one of the best pieces of advice for PhD students. Enjoy! PhageCast 2025 is sponsored by PrecisionPhage: ⁠www.precisionphage.com ⁠⁠www.phagenomics.net⁠ Contact PrecisionPhage on LinkedIn!  PrecisionPhage is a Finland-based phage biotech, providing services worldwide:  🔹phage laboratory R&D services such as on-demand phage isolation  🔹licensing of bacteriophages against WHO priority pathogens  🔹ready-to-use and custom-made bioinformatics software for phage and host genome analysis.  Are you new to phage genome assembly and functional analysis, and would you like to be able to get them done using the latest methods but without the burden of coding or manual work?  PrecisionPhage welcomes you to get familiar with Phagenomics! Phagenomics is a web-based software providing automated phage genome assembly, annotation & analysis, as well as comparative genomics. The tool bundles phage bioinformatics in a user-friendly online platform, performing the work of a seasoned phage bioinformatician in an automated manner. Phagenomics is developed in-house by PrecisionPhage.  Try Phagenomics for free at ⁠www.phagenomics.net⁠ and sign up for a pro subscription trial.

    48 min

  8. 07/04/2025

    22.- Expert opinion on phage therapy: round table from the First International Symposium on Advances in Phage Therapeutics

    22.- Expert opinion on phage therapy | Round table from the First International Symposium on Advances in Phage Therapeutics We are sharing one of the sessions of the 1st International Symposium on Advances in Phage Therapeutics that was held in Braga, Portugal during the month of June. You will hear a round table focused in challenge and frontiers for phage therapy.Martin Loessner from ETH Zúrich, moderating the discussion with Rob Lavigne, from KU leuven, Jean Paul Pirnay and Sara Djebara from Queen Astrid Military Hospital and Mzia Kutateladze from Eliava Phage Therapy Center. Topics such as: clinical improvement vs bacterial eradication, phage and antibiotic combination or resensitation, is it more important to have 2-3 really good phages or a big collection that you can go to?, can we move from a simplistic reductionist to a systems, more complex view?, what is the advantage of using phage mixtures?, is AI the way forward?, what should be the future of phage therapy?, is phage resistance necessarily a bad thing, if used long-term?,should there be last-resort phages?, do we need to train phages?, What about engineering bacteriophages? These and much more in this hour of conversation packed with food for thought! Enjoy! PhageCast 2025 is sponsored by PrecisionPhage: ⁠www.precisionphage.com ⁠⁠www.phagenomics.net⁠ Contact PrecisionPhage on LinkedIn!  PrecisionPhage is a Finland-based phage biotech, providing services worldwide:  🔹phage laboratory R&D services such as on-demand phage isolation  🔹licensing of bacteriophages against WHO priority pathogens  🔹ready-to-use and custom-made bioinformatics software for phage and host genome analysis.  Are you new to phage genome assembly and functional analysis, and would you like to be able to get them done using the latest methods but without the burden of coding or manual work?  PrecisionPhage welcomes you to get familiar with Phagenomics! Phagenomics is a web-based software providing automated phage genome assembly, annotation & analysis, as well as comparative genomics. The tool bundles phage bioinformatics in a user-friendly online platform, performing the work of a seasoned phage bioinformatician in an automated manner. Phagenomics is developed in-house by PrecisionPhage.  Try Phagenomics for free at ⁠www.phagenomics.net⁠ and sign up for a pro subscription trial.

    59 min
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Ratings & Reviews

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About

We will give you a merge between novel phage research and the personal experiences of people in the field. Learn phage science and how to navigate your careers, your life and do research! Brought to you by David Sáez, Maria Sequeira Lopes and Alexandre Lima. Enjoy the show! For comments and inquiries reach out to phagecast@gmail.com

Information

  • Creator
    News and interviews on the phage field.
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    36
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © News and interviews on the phage field.
  • Show Website
    PhageCast