Portable Phage Preparation Technology for Field Application

Bacteriophages (phages) are becoming important therapeutic candidates against multidrug resistant (MDR) bacterial infections. There is a need to isolate and concentrate phages collected from the field to enhance specimen storage stability for long-distance transport to specialized laboratories for subsequent analysis. Environmental phage preparation requires expensive, bulky instrumentation and intensive manual procedures. In order to streamline the processes for rapid phage enrichment, screening and isolation in the field, we propose to develop a portable system, comprising of microfluidic processing technology for environmental phage preparation. During Phase I, we developed a modular phage sample preparation system which was interconnected with inline microfluidic devices for efficient filtration. We breadboard tested the phage preparation workflow using various simulated environmental samples in the lab. Phase II research will focus on building a miniaturized and ruggedized system for targeted phage propagation and screening. We will extensively test this integrated phage preparation system with environmental samples from the field. Phase III will focus on alpha and beta prototype manufacturing, commercialization and technology validation with the DoD team. Our portable phage preparation of field suspension samples will provide a novel capability in wide usage of both military and civilian applications.