The Citizen Phage Library and Exeter Science Centre teams were at the Sidmouth Science Festival this weekend to recruit Citizen Phage Hunters in our search for novel ways of defeating antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

It was amazing to spend a day talking to the public about the project, the growing issue of antibiotic resistance and how phage therapy could be a powerful tool to treat infections and extend the utility of our existing antibiotics. I was actually quite surprised (and encouraged!) at how many of the people we spoke to were aware of antibiotic resistance, but also how many had heard of phage therapy and its use in Eastern Europe.

Everyone we spoke to was keen to get involved and take home a sampling kit to try and isolate phages. Once returned to us, these samples will be tested against our panel of clinical isolates to see if we isolate new phages that kill the pathogens Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We also ran a competition asking people where they think would be a great place to sample for new phages and got some great suggestions (inside a washing machine was an inspired choice!).

One of the primary aims of the Citizen Phage Library is to advocate for the use of phage therapy in the UK. This will require political action, driven by demand from both the public and clinicians. Informing the public about the efficacy and safety of treatment, the processes involved in personalised phage therapy and also the reasons that large clinical trials of phage therapy have given mixed results is a critical part of this mission.

Thanks to everyone who came and talked to us! We look forward to the next one!

Photo courtesy of Alice Mills from the Exeter Science Centre