Big Picture Science for Sep. 29, 2025: Not Just a Phage

Big Picture Science: Not Just a Phage

REPEAT
We’re hurtling towards a post-antibiotic world, as the overuse of antibiotics has given rise to dangerous drug-resistant bacteria. Can we fight back using viruses as weapons? An obscure medical therapy uses certain viruses called bacteriophages to treat infection. For a century attempts to turn phage-therapy into a life-saving treatment have faltered, but today there’s renewed interest in this approach. Can we use phages to forestall the antibiotic crisis?

Guests:

• Claas Kirchhelle – Medical historian at the University College, Dublin
• Tom Ireland – Journalist, editor of The Biologist and author of “The Good Virus: The Amazing Story and Forgotten Promise of the Phage”
• Steffanie Strathdee – Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences at the University of California San Diego
• Tom Patterson – Professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego

Originally aired August 12, 2024

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