Pilar Domingo-Calap, main researcher of the Environmental and Biomedical Virology group of the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology, a mixed centre of the University of Valencia and the CSIC, leads in the Valencian Community SUPERFAGO, a pioneering project with which to explain in ESO and baccalaureate phage therapy as a therapeutic tool against superbug infections. The proposal, financed by the FECyT, will be applied in 5 centres in Valencia, Benetússer and Alzira.
Antibiotic resistance is a global health problem and a challenge for the global scientific community. The World Health Organisation sees the emergence of resistant bacteria, known as “superbugs”, as a global threat, since there are strains that do not respond to current antibiotics. The need to search for alternative therapies has put the therapy with phages, bacteria viruses, in the spotlight as a very promising tool in the fight against “superbugs”.
This dissemination project promoted by the Biomedicine and Aging group of the University of Cantabria, led by Professor Jesús Navas, was created to bring science closer to educational centres and promote young talents in the field of research. “The project will explain the advantages of phage therapy to ESO and baccalaureate students, who will participate by collecting samples from the environment and analysing them in search of phages with activity against multiresistant pathogenic bacteria”, explains Pilar Domingo-Calap.
In the Valencian Community the project will begin during the last week of October and the educational centres involved are the IES Abastos (València, October 26 and 28), the IES Juan de Garay (València, November 4 and 11), the IES Campanar (Valencia, November 30 and December 3), the IES José María Parra (Alzira, December 20 and 22), and the IES María Carbonell i Sánchez (Benetússer, March 2022). In total, about 200 students from these centres will participate in the SUPERFAGO project, which will also be applied in five educational centres in Cantabria.
“In each centre, an informative talk will be held and individual environmental sample collection kits will be delivered to, in a second session, analyse the samples in search of phages against superbugs. The objective is to educate the population and promote scientific culture among students, and we think that this type of initiative is of great relevance and shows that science can also be fun”, comments Pilar Domingo-Calap.
SUPERFAGO project link: https://ir.uv.es/Dw6Gfgy
Photo caption:
- Transmission electron micrographs of phages isolated from the environment against superbugs.
