Our Science

AmpliPhi Biosciences is leading the development of bacteriophage technology as an innovative approach to combat infectious diseases.
While antibiotic therapy was one of the great health successes of the 20th century, significantly decreasing mortality and morbidity from bacterial infections, the rise of antibiotic-resistant infections has emerged as a serious and growing public health threat.

Bacteriophages, or “eaters of bacteria,” are highly targeted viruses that infect only bacteria. As they grow, many bacteriophages destroy their bacterial host in order to release hundreds of new bacteriophages.

This specificity has other benefits. Whereas antibiotics can kill a wide range of bacteria, leading to recolonization of the body by inappropriate and often harmful bacteria, bacteriophages selectively eliminate only the target.

Since bacteriophages amplify their numbers many times in the presence of their specific bacterial host, initial dosing levels can be extremely low – one billionth or less of the amount required for conventional antibiotics to be effective. A dose of about one thousandth of a billionth of a gram of bacteriophage has been found to be effective against infection. As a result, the potential for unwanted side effects appear to be very limited.
This combination of potency, safety and specificity underlies the recent resurgence of interest in this field. With the far greater understanding of bacteriophages and their function that is now available, it is possible to identify the bacteria causing disease and develop bacteriophage therapeutics that will kill those bacteria, and only those bacteria.

AmpliPhi Biosciences has focused initially on controlling one specific problem; Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common soil organism and is responsible for long-term problems in humans, infecting burns, wounds, and body cavities. It is the leading complication in patients with cystic fibrosis, resulting in damage to the lungs that often leads to respiratory failure.