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Call for papers - Phage therapy in the age of antimicrobial resistance

Guest Editors

Vijay Singh Gondil, PhD, University of Rochester Medical Center, USA
Neelam Jain, PhD, Amity University Rajasthan, India
Mianzhi Wang, PhD, Yangzhou University, China

Submission Status: Open   |   Submission Deadline: 30 April 2025
 

BMC Microbiology announces the launch of the Collection, Phage therapy in the age of antimicrobial resistance. This Collection seeks to understand and explore the potential, as well as the limitations, of phage therapy as a promising approach to fight antimicrobial resistance. We encourage submissions that report for instance on phage-bacteria interactions, clinical applications of phage therapy, bacteriophage resistance mechanisms and evolution of resistance mechanisms, phage lysins and their therapeutic potential, among other research questions.

New Content ItemThis Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being

Meet the Guest Editors

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Vijay Singh Gondil, PhD, University of Rochester Medical Center, USA

Vijay has a PhD in Microbiology from Panjab University, Chandigarh (India)  with special interest in antibiotic resistance, bacterial infections, biofilms and bacteriophage borne lysins. After his PhD, he worked on the molecular engineering of the bacteriophage borne lysins in the Wuhan Institute of Virology (China) as an ICGEB SMART fellow. As a postdoctoral researcher, Vijay worked at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh and University of Georgia (USA). He is currently working as a research associate at the University of Rochester Medical Center and exploring alternative therapeutic drug targets to combat antibiotic resistance. 

Neelam Jain, PhD, Amity University Rajasthan, India

Dr Jain is a Professor and Secretary of the Industry Advisory Council at the Amity Institute of Biotechnology. Her research interests lie in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and One Health, as evidenced by her publications in various fields of biomedical, agricultural, and environmental microbiology. She is particularly passionate about exploring microbial solutions such as bacteriophages, phage therapy, and bacteriocins for combating AMR and treating infectious diseases in both humans and animals. Dr Jain has made significant contributions to her field. Additionally, she has authored a book and numerous book chapters of national and international renown. Her academic achievements have been recognized with awards from esteemed organizations like the STEM-Research Society and the TWAS Young Scientist Travel Award. Dr Jain is a member of several prestigious scientific societies and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the IP International Journal of Medical Microbiology. She contributes as an editorial board member and reviewer for various journals including BMC Microbiology.

Mianzhi Wang, PhD, Yangzhou University, China

Dr Wang earned his PhD from South China Agricultural University in 2020 and later joined the College of Veterinary Medicine at Yangzhou University. His research interests focus on understanding the horizontal transmission of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through phage transduction, exploring phage therapy to combat AMR, and studying the co-evolution of bacteria and phage during phage therapy. He has led three research projects on phage transduction, novel phage resistance mechanisms, and phage therapy. Dr Wang has authored over twenty papers in international journals.

About the Collection

The spread of antimicrobial resistance presents a major global challenge, with multi-drug resistant pathogens posing a significant threat to public health due to the reduced efficacy of many antibiotics against common infections. Bacteriophages (or simply, phages) are viruses that infect bacteria, offering an alternative to antibiotics. In this context, phage therapy, which is the use of bacteria-specific phages to treat bacterial infections, has gained renewed interest and relevance as a promising avenue for combating multi-drug resistant pathogens. Due to the specificity of phages for their bacterial hosts, phages can target specific bacterial strains and provide a targeted therapeutic approach to combat antimicrobial resistance. Research in this field encompasses the study of the structure and evolution of phage-bacteria interactions, host specificity, resistance mechanisms, phage products, treatment efficacy, and the clinical use and regulations of phage therapy.

In support of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3), ‘Good health and well-being’, BMC Microbiology announces the launch of the Collection Phage therapy in the age of antimicrobial resistance. This Collection seeks to understand and explore the potential, as well as the limitations, of phage therapy as a promising approach to fight antimicrobial resistance. We encourage submissions that report for instance on phage-bacteria interactions, clinical applications of phage therapy, bacteriophage resistance mechanisms and evolution of resistance mechanisms, phage lysins and their therapeutic potential, among other research questions. Researchers and experts in the field are invited to submit research articles that cover, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Phage-bacteria interactions and host specificity
  • Host response to phage infection
  • The antimicrobial potential of bacteriophages and phage-borne lysins
  • Applications of bacteriophages and phage enzymes to modulate and treat bacterial infections
  • Challenges and opportunities in the development and implementation of phage therapy against multi-drug resistant pathogens
  • Precision medicine applications of phage therapy
  • Phage-antibiotic synergy
  • Phage cocktails against multi-drug resistant bacteria
  • Phage therapy clinical trials
  • Phages in biofilm control
  • Mechanisms and regulation of lytic, lysogenic and chronic cycles of bacteriophages
  • Regulation of phage gene expression
  • Bacteriophage genomes
  • Control of phage genome replication
  • Biocontrol capabilities of phages
  • Mechanisms underlying treatment efficacy and the evolution of resistance
  • Bacteriophage diversity, genomics and phylogeny
  • Bacteriophage resistance mechanisms
  • Bacterial anti-phage systems


Image credit: © iLexx / Getty Images / iStock

  1. Livestock-associated Staphylococcus aureus ST398 is a highly pathogenic species that causes infections in a wide variety of animals, including humans. The bacteriophage (phage) vB_SauS_S1 was isolated originally ...

    Authors: Hui Liu, Craig Billington, Xing Ji, Haichang Sun, Xiang Hou, Abbas Soleimani-Delfan, Ran Wang, Heye Wang and Lili Zhang
    Citation: BMC Microbiology 2025 25:184
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. As aquaculture continues to expand globally, diseases caused by Vibrio species are becoming increasingly prevalent. Vibriosis encompasses a range of infections, which can lead to symptoms such as skin lesions, he...

    Authors: Huiyu Ding, Keming Shi, Min Hsiao, Wenqing Li, Xin Liu, Jie Xu, Yunlan Yang and Rui Zhang
    Citation: BMC Microbiology 2025 25:99
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Multidrug-resistant (MDR) Klebsiella pneumoniae is a critical healthcare challenge due to its extensive resistance to antibiotics and role in causing severe infections. Bacteriophages offer a promising alternativ...

    Authors: Kamran Ahmad Mirza, Tinatini Tchatchiashvili, Mike Marquet, Sandor Nietzsche, Mathias W. Pletz and Oliwia Makarewicz
    Citation: BMC Microbiology 2025 25:96
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. Phages are critical components of the gut microbiome, influencing bacterial composition and function as predators, parasites, and modulators of bacterial phenotypes. Prophages, integrated forms of these phages...

    Authors: Nejc Stopnisek, Stina Hedžet, Tomaž Accetto and Maja Rupnik
    Citation: BMC Microbiology 2025 25:92
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is one of the most common serovars of Salmonella associated with clinical cases. It not only leads to diarrhea and mortality raised in livestock and poultry farming, but al...

    Authors: Yihong Sun, Qing Qu, Yanhua Huang, Shuo Zhou, Hua Xiang and Wei Wang
    Citation: BMC Microbiology 2025 25:39
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) is a severe threat for human health and urgently needs new therapeutic approaches. Lytic bacteriophages (phages) are promising clinically viable therapeutic optio...

    Authors: Juan Li, Qingqing Fang, Huan Luo, Yan Feng, Yu Feng and Zhiyong Zong
    Citation: BMC Microbiology 2025 25:17
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Acinetobacter baumannii is a gram-negative, opportunistic pathogen, that is responsible for a wide variety of infections and is a significant cause of hospital-acquired infections. A. baumannii is listed by the W...

    Authors: Issa Ndiaye, Laurent Debarbieux, Ousmane Sow, Bissoume Sambe Ba, Moussa Moise Diagne, Abdoulaye Cissé, Cheikh Fall, Yakhya Dieye, Ndongo Dia, Guillaume Constantin de Magny and Abdoulaye Seck
    Citation: BMC Microbiology 2024 24:449
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health concern, with drug-resistant strains posing a significant challenge to effective treatment. Bacteriophage (phage) therapy has emerged as a potential alternative ...

    Authors: Sharumathi Jeyasankar, Yeswanth Chakravarthy Kalapala, Pallavi Raj Sharma and Rachit Agarwal
    Citation: BMC Microbiology 2024 24:320
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Phage therapy in the age of antimicrobial resistance" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.