Genetically engineered virulent phage banks in the detection and control of emergent pathogenic bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Natural outbreaks of multidrug-resistant microorganisms can cause widespread devastation, and several can be used or engineered as agents of bioterrorism. From a biosecurity standpoint, the capacity to detect and then efficiently control, within hours, the spread and the potential pathological effects of an emergent outbreak, for which there may be no effective antibiotics or vaccines, become key challenges that must be met. We turned to phage engineering as a potentially highly flexible and effective means to both detect and eradicate threats originating from emergent (uncharacterized) bacterial strains. To this end, we developed technologies allowing us to (1) concurrently modify multiple regions within the coding sequence of a gene while conserving intact the remainder of the gene, (2)

SUBMITTER: Pouillot F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2956564 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature