The international group Phages for Global Health (PGH) (https://www.phagesforglobalhealth.org/), headed by its president and founder Dr. Tobi Nagel, partnered with the University of Santo Tomas – BEATS (Bacteriophage Ecology, Aquaculture, Therapy and Systematics) Research Group to conduct the very first hands-on Bacteriophage Workshop in Southeast Asia. The workshop was held from May 8 to 12, 2023 at the Roque Laboratory of the Graduate School and the biology laboratories of the College of Science at the Central Laboratory Building.
Internationally renowned phage experts such as Dr. Martha Clokie (University of Leicester, United Kingdom), Dr. Sunee Korbsrisate (Mahidol University, Thailand), Dr. Heera Rajandas and Dr. Sivachandran Parimannan (AIMST University, Malaysia) joined Dr. Donna May Papa (University of Santo Tomas, Philippines), Dr. Ron Dy (University of the Philippines – Diliman, Philippines), and Dr. Tobi Nagel to serve as workshop facilitators and instructors.
The workshop was attended by 36 participants from Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and from all over the Philippines. They were asked to join either a workshop on basic phage research methods or a training in bioinformatics. The workshop on phage methods included sample collection, isolation, purification and amplification of phages, webbed plate preparation, one-step growth experiments up to DNA extraction. Meanwhile, the workshop on bioinformatics included trainings on processing phage sequences, training on installation and troubleshooting of virtualization engines was done in order to run Ubuntu and Linux in windows systems, sample exercises were given on basics of linux and coding language in installation of softwares, pre-processing and quality control of sequence data, de novo assembly of phage sequences, genome annotation and core gene analysis and phylogenetic analysis of processed sample sequences. The culminating activity included reports delivered by the participants based on the results they generated and the learnings they gained during the workshop.
The PGH has been working tirelessly to facilitate the application of antibacterial phage technology in the developing world. The PGH has two different types of programs as they promote the use of phages through the conduct of Laboratory Training Workshops in developing countries and conduct Product Development Projects where they create International, multi-disciplinary teams that co-develop phage products for specific applications. They have initially conducted trainings in Africa but have since branched out to SouthEast Asia in 2022. As such, PGH funded all expenses for the participants and instructors for this workshop.
The BEATS group is the pioneering group of phage researchers in the Philippines. It is headed by Assoc. Prof. Donna May D.C. Papa, PhD of the Department of Biological Sciences of the College of Science and of the Sciences programs of the Graduate School. She is an academic researcher of the Research Center for the Natural and Applied Sciences.
Bacteriophages or phages are viruses that specifically target bacterial organisms and are not harmful to human, animal, or plant cells. They are used and even sold commercially in other countries as alternatives to antibiotics to help address the growing global concern against antimicrobial resistance not just in the medical field but also in the Food industry, Aquaculture, Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine.
Apart from capacity-building and teaching phage biology to scientists in Southeast Asia, the Phages for Global Health and the UST BEATS Research group aimed to create a consortium of phage biologists in the region through this workshop to further phage research and exchange of knowledge between institutions from the different countries in Southeast Asia and look into antibacterial phage technology as an alternative to antibiotics since antimicrobial resistance is one of the major concerns in the region.
