Pilar Domingo, researcher at the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), joint center of the University of Valencia and the Higher Council for Scientific Research.

Pilar Domingo, researcher at the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), joint center of the University of València and the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) has launched the “Adopt a Phage” crowdfunding campaign, together with the Spanish Cystic Fibrosis Federation, to obtain funding to study new antimicrobial therapies. The study focuses on phage therapy, a practice that tries to alleviate diseases caused by multi-resistant bacteria through the use of phages, viruses that exclusively affect the bacteria of interest.

With the campaign @AdoptaUnFago, Anyone can make a donation at www.fibrosisquistica.org and send your own drawing of a phage to adoptionunfago@gmail.com to share it on social networks. Each donor will also receive one of these drawings along with their donation certificate.

Another initiative that has been launched to raise funds is a charity concert called FAGOFEST. This will take place at La Casa de la Mar in València on December 2. It starts at 5 p.m. and features the live presence of the groups Paranoia, F-six and Nudo Windsor, as well as a session by DJ Navas.

Bacteriophages, mostly known as phages, are viruses that have coexisted with bacteria since their inception in a parasite-host relationship. Thanks to their specificity, they present enormous potential as a therapy in biomedicine, although it is still under study due to the lack of adequate clinical trials and the lack of regulation by the competent authorities.

People with cystic fibrosis are especially vulnerable to infections with resistant bacteria. That is why, from the Spanish Cystic Fibrosis Federation, research is being supported for new therapies against resistant bacteria. This campaign, supported on social networks @AdoptaUnFago, aims to implement a personalized medicine platform based on phages against bacteria. It should be noted that, despite being launched by the Spanish Cystic Fibrosis Federation, there is a global problem that requires short-term solutions and that could affect anyone.

Phages were discovered more than 100 years ago and since then they have been used as therapeutic tools in Eastern countries. However, in most countries in Europe and America, phages were put aside after the discovery of broad-spectrum antibiotics. Currently, due to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, phages are postulated as a powerful therapy, although in the West there is still no specific regulatory framework and their use is focused on compassionate therapy.

Therefore, compassionate use in patients is having very promising results, mainly in people with Cystic Fibrosis. Pilar Domingo assures that phages "are capable of recognizing target bacteria specifically and are capable of destroying them very efficiently, including multi-resistant bacteria. In this sense, the therapeutic use of phages has a lot of potential, but due to the high specificity, we are talking about personalized medicine."

Pilar Domingo has a doctorate in Biology from the University of Valencia. She has recently been the beneficiary of a Ramón y Cajal contract in Biomedicine, where she develops her line of research in phage therapy in the fight against multi-resistant bacteria. She is also a principal researcher in the Environmental and Biomedical Virology group at the University of Valencia.

“Adopt a phage” campaign on Twitter.

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