Pilar Domingo, main researcher of the Environmental and Biomedical Virology group of the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (UV-CSIC).

Pilar Domingo-Calap, main researcher of the Environmental and Biomedical Virology group of the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology, a joint center of the University of Valencia and the CSIC, leads in the Valencian Community SUPERFAGO, a pioneering project with which to explain in secondary and high school phage therapy as a therapeutic tool against superbacterial infections. The proposal, financed by the FECyT, will be applied in 5 centers in Valencia, Benetússer and Alzira.

Antibiotic resistance constitutes a global health problem and a challenge for the world scientific community. The World Health Organization considers the emergence of resistant bacteria, known as “superbugs”, a global threat, since there are strains that do not respond to current antibiotics. The need to look for alternative therapies has put phage therapy, bacteria viruses, in the spotlight as a very promising tool in the fight against “superbacteria”.

This informative project promoted by the Biomedicine and Aging group of the University of Cantabria, led by Professor Jesús Navas, was born to bring science closer to educational centers and promote young talents in the field of research. “The project will explain the advantages of phage therapy to ESO and high school students, who will participate by collecting samples from the environment and analyzing 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 centers involved are the IES Abastos (València, 26 and 28 October), the IES Juan de Garay (València, November 4 and 11), the IES Campanar (València, 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 centers will participate in the SUPERFAGO project, which will also be applied in five educational centers in Cantabria.

"In each center, an informative talk will be held and kits will be delivered for collecting individual environmental samples to, in a second session, analyze the samples in search of phages against superbacteria. The objective is to raise awareness among the population and promote scientific culture among students, and we think that this type of initiatives are of great relevance and show that science can also be fun,” comments Pilar Domingo-Calap.

SUPERFAGO project link: https://ir.uv.es/Dw6Gfgy

Attached caption:

- Transmission electron micrographs of phages isolated from the environment against superbacteria.

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