Not all those who evolve are adapted: The ecology and evolution of microbial interactions within synthetic communities and phage therapy

With the rapid increase in the frequency of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, alternative antimicrobials are required. Viruses of bacteria ('phages) may provide such an alternative. Unlike antibiotics, they have the advantage of being highly species-specific, meaning host-beneficial bacteria are not harmed during treatment.
One potential limitation of phages as antimicrobials is the ease at which bacteria can evolve resistance. However, resistance often results in loss of modification of important bacterial structures, which can reduce their growth rate and virulence, and hence this may be a desirable outcome. Moreover, phages can themselves rapidly evolve to overcome resistance. Despite a wealth of data on bacteria-virus interactions in both laboratory and natural environments, we currently have little knowledge of these interactions in clinical contexts. Moreover, if evolution proceeds in similar ways in vivo and in vitro, it will be possible to rapidly pre-adapt phage against target bacteria in vitro phage to increase the efficacy of phage therapy.
The student will use clinical phage therapy samples (from our long term collaborators) to obtain a detailed knowledge of phenotypic and molecular bacteria-phage interactions during phage therapy. This information will be fed into mathematical models to predict treatment outcomes.