Bacteriophage therapy research

Phage therapy is an alternative way to treat bacterial infections. Phages are a bacterial virus that preys on bacteria - it targets a particular bacterium, then injects it with DNA to take it over and make more phages. The bacteria explode and die, expelling up to 300 new phages, which then search for their next target. Phage therapy could be an adjunct to standard antibiotic therapy and a way to combat antibacterial resistance.

New research centres dedicated to harnessing and evolving phage therapies have recently been established in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Israel and France — joining longstanding phage research centres in Poland and the Republic of Georgia. Yet, despite rising global interest in phages, Canada lags behind its international peers and it is not available as a treatment here.

A recent $5 million gift from an anonymous donor to U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine is funding bacteriophage therapy research through:

A Professorship in Bacteriophage Therapy Research and Innovation – awarded to Dr. Greg German.
Expanding Canadian bacteriophage biobanking resources
Establishing a bacteriophage therapy research accelerator fund.

Make a gift and support Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology Bacteriophage Therapy Research and Innovation

Results of our 2024 bacteriophage therapy research grant competition

As part of the above donation, an accelerator fund was set up for bacteriophage therapy research. We ran a grant competition to distribute the funds and are delighted to announce the following funding results.

Grant recipient	Institution	Project title
Alan R. Davidson	University of Toronto	A Novel Experimental and Computational Approach to Engineering Phage/Host Specificity
Steve Charette	Université Laval	Phage Therapy Against Staphylococcus Hyicus, A Neglected Swine Pathogen
Adam Hart	McGill University	Intraarticular phage hydrogels for localized treatment of periprosthetic joint infections
Hesham Abdelbary	The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute	Feasibility Clinical Trail of Phage Therapy in Periprosthetic Joint Infections Treated with DAIR
Jonathan Dennis	University of Alberta	Burkholderia Phage Therapy Accelerator,
Corinne Maurice	McGill University	Using bacteriophages to accelerate gut microbiome development and improve child growth
Karen Maxwell	University of Toronto	Identifying Optimal Phage Scaffolds for Therapeutic Development
Louis-Charles Fortier	Université de Sherbrooke	Phage therapy targeting proinflammatory bacteria associated with ulcerative colitis

Phage therapy news

Driving a new era of Phage Therapy research and innovation

A recent $5-million donation to the University of Toronto's Temerty Faculty of Medicine aims to establish the country as a leading center for phage therapy and accelerate research efforts.

U of T Scientists discover a century of safe and effective use of Phage Therapy

Dr. Greg German and Dr. Jonathan Cook have conducted a comprehensive systematic review revealing over a century of safe and effective use of Phage Therapy. The team identified more than 1,400 unique human cases of Phage therapy for urinary tract infections since 1926, prompting efforts to raise awareness and consider it as a treatment option in Canada.