The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) have confirmed that the United States and the rest of the world are amid an emerging crisis of antibiotic resistance for microbial pathogens [2]. In 2016 the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today. [3]

As antibiotics are losing their effect, invasive surgeries such as organ transplants, joint replacements and cardiac surgeries will become difficult and expensive. People undergoing chemotherapy or taking any immunosuppressants will be in a lot more danger of contracting deadly infections. An increasing number of infections, such as pneumonia, gonorrhea and tuberculosis, are becoming difficult to treat because the antibiotics previously used are starting to become less effective [3]. The threat of antibiotic resistance has led to policies for restrictive use of antibiotics, but many countries have already given up the battle against certain antibiotic resistant bacteria, such as MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), common in hospitals. If these policies fail, the need for an alternative will be vital.

The bacteriophages were discovered in the beginning of the 20th century, and scientists early suggested using them to counter bacterial infections. With the discovery of antibiotics, however, scientists in the Western world lost the interest in bacteriophages, and the research on phages was primarily conducted in the Soviet union, especially in what is now the country of Georgia. During the second world war, Soviet soldiers used bacteriophages as treatment for infections, and there still exists a phage therapy center in Tbilisi, Georgia today [4]. Phage therapy had a bad reputation for a long time, mostly because of poor documentation and research methods, but currently, under the threat of antibiotic resistance, the interest in bacteriophages is rising once again.[5]

Phage therapy does however have several issues to be ironed out before becoming a mainstream medical treatment.[5] One major stumbling block for phage therapy is the high host specificity of phages. Most phages can only infect certain strains of a bacterial species. This creates the need for either large libraries of potential phages, or a quick method of developing a phage capable of fighting a given bacterial infection. In order to solve this problem, our project attempts to investigate the latter method.