Demands of Large-scale Production of Phages

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are observed with increasing prevalence. Alternatives to antibiotics have thus become a public health priority for the treatment of bacterial infections. There has been a resurgence in the use of bacteriophages as therapeutics. Applications of phages include antibiotic replacement, gene therapy vectors, vaccines, diagnostics using filamentous phages and novel optical applications such as the phage laser. This has increased demand for investigations into large-scale production of bacteriophage. However, the large-scale production of wild type or genetically modified bacteriophages for use in the biotherapeutics industry provides significant process and regulatory challenges. Moreover, many of the techniques that are used at small scales are not transferable to large-scale production facilities of phage in industrial processes.

Learn more: isolation of bacteriophage