PhageBiotics Research community

What is the "PhageBiotics" Research community

Our research community aims at enhancing scientific communication and collaboration concerning bacteriophage research and its potential applications in medicine. The 'PhageBiotics' research community owes its existence to a grant awarded by the FWO Vlaanderen to partners involved. The primary aim is to enable national and international scientific cooperation and communication, primarily at the postdoctoral level.

Three Flemish research groups (Laboratory of Gene Technology, K.U.Leuven; Laboratory Bacteriological Research, Ugent; Laboratory for Molecular and Cellular Technology, UZ Neder-Over-Heembeek) combine their expertise in this domain with eastern European partners in Russia (State Research Institute GSIM, Moscow; Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute, Moscow) and Georgia (Eliava Institute, Tblisi) to assess the therapeutic potential of bacteriophages in the West through fundamental and applied research.

The interaction between the research groups involved can mainly be considered as a continuation of existing collaborations between individual groups, while at the same time bringing together these collaborations into a coordinated joint initiative. This can be noted from the number of joint publications already existing between the research groups.This cooperation will help streamline the research which aims at developing bacteriophage therapy as a reliable method to combat bacterial infections (in a hospital setting according to the required standards set by Western legislature). Apart from the envisioned practical applications, this collaboration should lead to a better understanding of bacteriophage biology and the co-evolution between phage and bacterium. The basic expertise of the individual research groups as outlined above are strongly complementary. They each provide crucial elements in establishing an interconnected research collaboration, which links fundamental and applied phage research, translating relevant expertise between the Flemish and Russian/Georgian research groups.

News and activities


  • July 2011: Several members of the P.H.A.G.E.biotics consortium attend a private meeting with the EMA innovation task Force in a ‘fact-finding’ meeting in the framework of the PhD of Gilbert Verbeken.

  • April 2011: Prof. V. Krylov attends the SGM meeting: “Microbial viruses: genomics, evolution and applications in Ecology, Biotechnology and Medicine”, Belfast, Ireland, with support of the P.H.A.G.E.biotics research community. Prof. Lavigne is invited speaker at this venue.

  • February 2011: Gilbert Verbeken attends the “MasterClass Training in Biosimilars” Prague, Tsjechia, with support of the P.H.A.G.E.biotics research community.

  • October 2010: Dieter Vandenheuvel (of the K.U.Leuven) starts his PhD entitled:” Exploitatie van bacteriofagen in farmacologische doseringsvormen ter bestrijding van bacteriële infectieziekten”. This research is funded by an IWT scholarship. (Promoters: Prof. R. Lavigne, Prof. G. Van den Mooter, K.U.Leuven; Dr. D. De Vos, RMA/QAMH)

  • June 21-25 2010: The PhageBiotics consortium attends the first Viruses of Microbes meeting in Paris, France. five predoctoral and postdoctoral researchers are supported to attend this conference.

  • February 2010: Daniel De Vos and collaborators publishes the review "Phage Therapy in clinical Practice: Treatment of Human Infections in Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, 11:69-86 with support of PhageBiotics

  • 18th December 2009: The "Phages in interaction III" meeting is hosted at the K.U.Leuven and is supported by the PhageBiotics Research community.

  • 11th october 2009: The members of the PhageBiotics team have received the "11ème biennale Prix de la recherche scientifique Martin RAMELOT". This biannual awards aims to support scientific research which promotes the quality of treatment in severe burn wounds. Dr. Jean-Paul Pirnay and Dr. Merabishvili received the award on behalf of the entire P.H.A.G.E. research team. Ramelot Award

  • September 2009- March 2010: Dr. Merabishvili and Dr. Tea Glonti embark on six month scientific visits to various laboratories in Belgium

  • August 2009: Dr. Merabishvili attends the 18th Phage Symposium (Evergreen, USA) to present the scientific results of the Belgian/Georgian/Russian phage therapy trial

  • 16th July 2009: The non-profit organisation Phages for Human Applications Group Europe (P.H.A.G.E.) is founded by the Belgian research groups and members of the Pasteur Institute (France). The P.H.A.G.E. association aims to develop a specific regulatory framework for the use of bacteriophages (phages). P.H.A.G.E. consists of members that share an interest in the development of phage knowledge and phage application (prophylactic as well as therapeutic). Its members are originating from EU member states or from abroad, but its work is restricted to the EU. The work area comprises activities on the European policy level. Members are typically scientists, medical doctors, and specialists in the fields of health economics, legal-, regulatory- or quality control-matters.

  • March 2009: A first, fully joint manuscript is published in PLoS One, focussing on Quality-controlled bacteriophage cocktails for human clinical trials