Unity Health Toronto

Published purpose

Antimicrobial resistance is a top 10 global health threat and innovations are required to combat a silent pandemic expected to cause more deaths than cancer by 2050. A leading candidate is the use of the oldest natural enemy of bacteria—their own viruses called bacteriophages or phages. There are no specific clinical criteria for bacteriophage susceptibility and testing with routine methods is cumbersome and manual. This Project proposes the use of a microfluidic device to screen bacteriophages for E. coli, Staphylococcus (including methicillin-resistant S. aureus), and Pseudomonas (including P. aeruginosa). This device expands on Sci-Bot technology using two fluorescent detectors for a screen of up to 30 phages in as little as 3 hours, to a tailored digital microfluidic chamber allowing for single droplet analysis, titration, and synergy. This builds on work with HHT and CRAFT colleagues and will be expanded to an NRC and Innovate UK collaboration on phage production.