The Targeting Phage Therapy 2024 Best Poster Presentation award was discerned to:
Development of Phage-based Tool with the Potential to Treat Antibiotic-Resistant Gonorrhea
Magdalena Pelka, University of Warsaw, Poland
Ms. Pelka’s research focused on developing a phage-based tool to treat antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea. Her work involves isolating and characterizing phages with lytic activity against Neisseria gonorrhoeae, aiming to provide an effective alternative to traditional antibiotics.
The project of fighting against antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea has several approaches. The research group including Ms. Pelka aim to find a lytic phage against Neisseria by screening environmental samples. Another approach is selecting and synthesizing prophage-encoded proteins with potential antimicrobial activity.
Ms. Pelka stated: “So far we’ve screened wastewater samples against wild-type, commensal, mutant and clinical Neisseria strains. We also performed optimization of obtaining the first two lytic proteins (depolymerases). Our research shows that both approaches have the potential to result with a phage-based tool working against gonorrhea. In the near future we will improve the screening process, making it more high-throughput and extensive. We will also enhance the molecular work by optimizing expression and purification of the proteins, as well as further testing, also on human cells for cytotoxicity.”
You can learn about this insightful discovery and well executed poster in Targeting Phage Therapy 2024 Abstracts Book.
Targeting Phage Therapy 2024 Congress
7th World Conference
June 20-21, 2024 – Malta