Phase Genomics in Seattle has announced grants totaling $5.5 million to develop a predictive discovery engine for phage therapeutics based on its phage-bacteria interactome repository. 

Phages are viruses that prey on bacteria and hold the potential to address antibiotic-resistant infections. Although phages are among the most abundant forms of life, few interactions between them and their targets have been documented. The funding, which includes a $3.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and $2 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will enable Phase Genomics to use its ProxiMeta proximity-guided metagenomics platform to build an atlas of phage-bacteria interactions.

The company will then develop artificial intelligence-based tools to identify phages that can be used for therapeutic applications such as the treatment of Clostridioides difficile infections, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease. 

“The potential to leverage the knowledge of how viruses and bacteria interact is immense,” said Phase Genomics founder and CEO Ivan Liachko. “We plan for the new phage atlas to serve as a resource to help combat pathogen outbreaks and other biological threats, including drug resistance caused by the overuse of antibiotics.”

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