Phage Bank: Rapid Response to Antibiotic Resistance
Our Phage Bank is a curated collection of locally isolated, pre-characterized bacteriophages designed to combat antibiotic-resistant infections. By establishing national and regional phage banks, we can rapidly deploy targeted treatments during local outbreaks of resistant pathogens.
The Phage Bank collections of the Bavarian Competence Center for Phage Therapy (BayPha) prioritize AMR pathogenic bacteria, focusing initially on the ESKAPE pathogens (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter spp), followed by additional priority organisms from the WHO Global Priority Pathogens List of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (2024).
Phage match
The disease-causing bacterial strain is isolated from each patient. Subsequently, a targeted search is conducted in our Phage Bank for those phages that effectively combat exactly this strain. This susceptibility testing, also called a Phagogram, ensures that a tailored and highly specific treatment is developed for the patient.
Personlized Precision Phage Therapy: When no matching phage is available in our Phage Bank, our advanced phage isolation pipeline allows us to rapidly discover and prepare new candidates, delivering individualized, precision phage therapy for each patient.
On-Site GMP Phage Facility
We are planning an on-site GMP facility that will establish the critical infrastructure for future clinical trials in phage therapy. This facility will enable rapid, compliant production of investigational medicinal products (IMPs) with minimal lead time from discovery to patient treatment.
By bringing phage discovery, formulation, and manufacturing together under one roof, the facility will make personalized phage therapy a practical reality. It will allow the rapid creation of patient-specific phage cocktails based on individual bacterial isolates and immediate reformulation when resistance emerges — removing the delays of off-site production. The planned facility will also support the development of hospital-specific phage banks, ready to scale during local outbreaks or for routine infections.