The international group Phages for Global Health (PGH), 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 South East Asia. It 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.
UST-BEATS is the pioneering group of phage researchers in the Philippines headed by Asst. Prof. Donna May Papa, Ph.D. of the College of Science, the Research Center for the Natural and Applied Sciences, and the Graduate School.
PGH has been working tirelessly to facilitate the application of antibacterial phage technology in the developing world. The health organization has two different types of programs anchored in their mission to promote the use of phages: 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 training sessions 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.
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.
Internationally renowned phage experts such as ๐๐ฟ. ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐ต๐ฎ ๐๐น๐ผ๐ธ๐ถ๐ฒ (University of Leicester, United Kingdom), ๐๐ฟ. ๐ฆ๐๐ป๐ฒ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฏ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ (Mahidol University, Thailand), ๐๐ฟ. ๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ and ๐๐ฟ. ๐ฆ๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ถ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป๐ป๐ฎ๐ป (AIMST University, Malaysia) joined ๐๐ฟ. ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ป๐ฎ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฎ (University of Santo Tomas, Philippines) and ๐๐ฟ. ๐ฅ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ (University of the Philippines – Diliman, Philippines) and ๐๐ฟ. ๐ง๐ผ๐ฏ๐ถ ๐ก๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ๐น served as workshop facilitators and instructors.
The workshop was attended by 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 while 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.
Apart from capacity building and teaching phage biology to scientists in South East Asia, the PGH 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 to exchange knowledge between institutions from the different countries in Southeast Asia. They are also looking into antibacterial phage technology as an alternative to antibiotics since antimicrobial resistance is one of the major concerns in the region.
