In autumn 2016, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) launched a grant for the development of diagnostics and novel therapies to treat bacterial infections. The joint project “Phage4Cure” of four renowned German research institutions was elected and recently started working. The related press information will be released within the next days.
Dr. Christine Rohde and her team started selecting suitable bacteriophages in her laboratory. These will be tested against around 150 strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa of clinics all over Europe – taken from pulmonary infected patients. The phages which are able to destroy most of those bacteria will be passed on to Dr. Holger Ziehr of Fraunhofer ITEM. He will then develop a drug for inhalation according to international quality standards.