Their diversity is virtually endless, meaning there is – in theory – no shortage of treatment options. However, compared to antibiotics, phages have an incredibly narrow-spectrum activity not just on the species level but even on the strain level. Any one phage simply does not work for most infections, which we call the phage specificity problem. To circumvent this problem, personalized treatment is typically required where phage banks are screened against clinical isolates. This procedure is currently very laborious and often relies on old techniques which are difficult to scale to larger numbers. Therefore, we develop and exploit high throughput, quantitative methods to phenotypically characterize phages based on bacterial growth curves, laboratory automation, theoretical modelling and sequencing. Long-term, we believe that these methods can help screen biobanks to develop off-the-shelf phage cocktails against pathogens with limited genetic diversity such as mycobacterium tuberculosis. For more diverse pathogens, we aim to contribute to solving the phage specificity problem by creating a pipeline to rapidly identify optimal phages for personalized treatment. 

Internships

We offer internship opportunities to both BSc and MSc students with a clear interest in microbiology (as evidenced by courses taken). The topics align with the four research themes indicated on this website. Techniques involved include protein purification and detection techniques, cell fractionation, biochemical analyses, microscopy-based bacterial cell biology, fluorescence-based monitoring of bacterial growth and stress, and molecular cloning and detection techniques.

Internships can start in February or September and students should contact Peter van Ulsen (j.p.van.ulsen@vu.nl) to express their interest. Please send a CV along with details of your study programme (courses taken).