Welcome to Bacteriophage.org!

What is a Bacteriophage?
A bacteriophage is a virus that kills bacteria.

Bacteriophages attach themselves to the surface of bacteria. Once attached, the bacteriophages inject their DNA inside the bacteria. Then, the viral DNA replicates itself over and over again until the bacteria dies.

It appears that every bacteria in existence probably has a bacteriophage that will kill it. This suggests that any bacterial infection could be cured by a bacteriophage. And, best of all, side effects are unlikely, because while bacteriophages can infect bacteria, it is believed that they cannot infect human cells.

Research On-going
We are researching exactly when bacteriophages may have been discovered. Interestingly, some folk treatments like using seawater on wounds may have been grounded in science, as it is now known that bodies of water, which contain bacteria, also often contain bacteriophages.

It is believed that bacteriophages were used in the USA in the 1930s.

We think that bacteriophages have been identified since the 1990s.

At least once source credits Felix D'Herelle as being the discoverer of bacteriophages.

Places Researching Bacteriophages
1) The Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology and Virology 3,
Gotua Street 380060, Tbilisi, Georgia
Tel: +995 32 37 42 27 or +995 32 23 32 95
Fax: +995 32 99 91 53 or +995 32 22 19 65
E-mail: Chanish@kheta.ge
Web site: http://www.acnet.ge/virol.htm

The institute was founded in 1923 by Georgian scientist Professor George Eliava and his French-Canadian colleague Felix D'Herelle - the discoverer of bacteriophages. This information was culled from the web site.

2) Republic of Georgia Regional Hospital, Republic of Georgia

3) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta, Georgia, USA

4) Intralytix, Baltimore, MD, USA

5) Exponential Biotherapies Inc., Washington DC, USA

Bacteriophage Foundation(TM)
Copyright © Bradley Hennenfent, MD November 5, 2003