EASTBIO: Can phage therapy be used in aquaculture to tackle bacterial infections and AMR?

Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that specifically infect and kill bacteria. Straddling the boundary of living and non-living entities these are fascinating to study from the perspective of understanding basic biology. Furthermore, they have exciting potential as novel treatments against bacterial infections, including multi-drug resistant pathogens, either through using the phages themselves (phage therapy) ortheir cell-wall lytic enzymes. In the face of growing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) alternative treatments to conventional antimicrobials are much-needed and the exploitation of phages is an attractive approach for this.

This project will isolate and characterise phages active at killing important aquaculture pathogens, the objective being to evaluate their potential as novel antimicrobial agents in this setting.  

Aquaculture (fish and shellfish) is a significant industry and source of nutrition in many low-income or middle-income countries. It has undergone remarkable growth in the last 50 years and is expected to expand even further to meet growing global food demands. Bacterial infections are a major problem and there are concerns over the use of antimicrobials in aquaculture due to the development and spread of AMR. Climate change may make these problems more acute, increases in water temperature, causing stress on fish may make susceptible to infectious diseases. Phages may have an important role to play in sustaining aquaculture and minimising the spread and impact of AMR.

Based in the Roslin Institute, the project benefits from world-class facilities with the Easter Bush campus being Europe’s largest concentration of animal science research. The project offers a varied training experience in laboratory microbiology and bioinformatics supported in a collegiate environment with a supervisory team with complementary expertise in bacteriology, bacteriophages and aquaculture. Specific techniques may include; bacterial culture, PCR, phage isolation, electron microscopy, DNA and RNA extraction, cloning, protein expression and genome analysis. There is a vibrant postgraduate community on campus (>100 PhD students) providing a rich diversity of scholarly and networking opportunities.

Funding information and application procedures:

This 4 year PhD project is part of a competition funded by EASTBIO BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) http://www.eastscotbiodtp.ac.uk/how-apply-0.

 EASTBIO Application and Reference Forms can be downloaded via  http://www.eastscotbiodtp.ac.uk/how-apply-0

 Please send your completed EASTBIO Application Form along with a copy of your academic transcripts to [Email Address Removed]

 You should also ensure that two references have been send to [Email Address Removed] by the deadline using the EASTBIO Reference Form.

 This opportunity is open to UK and international students and provides funding covering stipend and UK level tuition fees. The University of Edinburgh covers the difference between home and international fees meaning that the EASTBIO DTP offers fully-funded studentships to all appointees. There is a cap on the number of international students the DTP recruits. It is therefore important for us to know from the outset which fees status category applicants will fall under when applying to our university.

 Please refer to UKRI website and Annex B of the UKRI Training Grant Terms and Conditions for full eligibility criteria.