More  good news on designer phages-and why we think they’ll work

Last week, with the help of our doughty researchers, we published a small piece describing how Artificial Intelligence is being employed to design new generations of bacteriophages, some of which might be used to target antibiotic‑resistant bacteria (LSS 8.8.26). Hopeful, certainly — but intelligent readers will ask the old question: what’s the chance any of this will work anytime soon?

Well, you’ll be glad to know that human‑modified bacteriophages have already been in action, and successfully too, since the far‑off days of 2024. They weren’t using AI to design the phages then, merely modifying them using another LSS favourite: CRISPR‑Cas9 gene editing.

Our first trope concerns a report in The Lancet Microbe, a long but reasonably readable paper describing a safety and tolerability trial of SNIPR001 — a combination of four CRISPR–Cas‑equipped bacteriophages — in healthy human volunteers. Results were encouraging:

“SNIPR001 was safe and well tolerated in healthy participants, with signals suggesting targeted activity against E. coli, despite the absence of a statistically significant effect.”

Our second trope comes from the excellent Michael Le Page of New Scientist, who reports on the clinical use of the same SNIPR technology — not a trial in healthy volunteers, but in an actual patient. His piece, CRISPR‑armed phages help treat severe superbug infection, is unfortunately behind a paywall, but worth crossing. It tells the story of a 65‑year‑old man in California with a severe, antibiotic‑resistant E. coli infection whose condition markedly improved after receiving these engineered phages. The lesson is clear: artificially-modified phages can work.

Now, nobody is claiming miracle cures — not the authors of the paper, nor Michael, nor ourselves. But all of us, in our different ways, are pointing to extremely encouraging signs. And remember our original point: all of the above took place, before our famous AI‑designed bacteriophages have even gone into trial. What possibilities might open up when they are fully deployed?

[1] Safety, recovery, and pharmacodynamics of CRISPR–Cas therapeutic SNIPR001: a phase 1, randomised, double-blind, first-in-human, dose-escalation study – The Lancet Microbe

[2] CRISPR-armed phages help treat severe superbug infection | New Scientist

# Artificial Intelligence # bacteriophages # SNIPR001 # CRISPR‑Cas9 #antibiotic resistance #bacteria #microbiology #medicine #health