Grant winner searching for new bacteriophages

Master student Valeriya Ilyina is one of the triumphants of the Student Startup competition.

As Ilyina says, she had been working on the project at the Genetic of Microorganisms Lab before she won the contest. She will disburse the award of 1 million rubles to materials, remuneration, and contractor services.

Bacteriophages are viruses specifically targeting bacteria and thus promising as antibacterial drug components. Bacteriophages are non-toxic and do not disrupt human microbiota. They can also work synergistically with antibitiotics and enhance the latters’ activity.

The interviewee comments, “We are currently studying bacteriophages which are active against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It’s a dangerous human pathogen, especially for people with immune deficiency. It can cause nosocomial pneumonias and pneumonias with high virulence and lethality. Pseudonomas is capable of forming biofilms, which renders antibiotic therapy ineffective and provokes chronic ailments. Such infections are extremely detrimental to people with cystic fibrosis.”

She concludes that she’d like to advance the project to industrial production. However, there is much hard work ahead.