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

Canadian Bacteriophage Therapy Acceleration Fund: second call for Letters of Interest

Deadline for Letters of Interest (LOI): May 22, 2026, 11:59PM EDT

Thanks to a generous donation to the University of Toronto, up to $1.5 million CAD will be available in 2026 to support bacteriophage research initiatives across Canada.

We invite applications for high-impact projects focused on the use of phages in human and animal health, agriculture, or food safety.

The funding

We aim to fund up to ten projects at $150,000 per project.

We will award a minimum of five grants to projects focused on human applications of phages, including phage screening and engineering, as well as manufacturing, regulatory considerations, and delivery of phage therapy; and
We will award at least two grants to early-career researchers (within five years of their first independent appointment).

These categories may overlap.

Awarded funds must be spent within 18 months of the project start date. The first allocation of funds will total 65% of the award and based on report review and satisfactory performance the remaining 35% will be distributed at the 10-month mark.

Funds will be distributed by the University of Toronto to a Canadian academic institution or affiliated research organization.

Eligibility

You must have an existing research project that is already well positioned to achieve tangible progress toward translation or application within the award period.

Your project cannot have been funded in the first (2024) Acceleration Fund competition. However, you are welcome to apply if you were funded and have a new proposal that represents a shift in research scope from the first grant.

We encourage collaborations:

with Canadian and international academic and non-academic partners.
between senior and early-career researchers.

How to apply

You, as a principal investigator may submit a maximum of one letter of interest. Please refer to CIHR definitions for eligibility of a Nominated Principal Applicant.

Submit a one-page letter of interest using the provided template by May 22, 2026, 11:59PM EDT to Ms. Debb Yorke at lmp.chairadmin@utoronto.ca. The subject line of the email should be the saved file name of the LOI. Proposal title should not exceed 90 characters, spaces included.

If successful, we encourage you to conduct all research ethics board processes prior to funds being released.

Download the LOI template (word)

Deadlines

May 22, 2026, 11:59PM EDT: Submit expression of interest letter (LOI).
June 30, 2026, 11:59PM EDT: We will inform successful letter of interest applicants.
August 31, 2026, 11:59PM EDT: Deadline for successful second stage applications.
Fall 2026: We expect to notify awardees.
December 2026 (initial) and September 2027 (remaining): Funding distribution.

Contact

For any questions, please contact Ms. Debb Yorke at lmp.chairadmin@utoronto.ca.

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.