Patterson Case and the Thomas L. Patterson Fellowship
The CPT continued its original premise in combating diseases caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The CPT was the only academic institution that contributed to the rescue of Dr. Tom Patterson from certain death by bacterial sepsis at the UCSD hospital in 2016, which was the first modern instance of successful intervention with phage therapy. The “Tom Patterson Case” is regarded as a landmark event in modern phage therapy. The first scientific publication resulting from this case was published in 2017, and followed by another publication lead by the CPT team. The fallout from the Patterson case included the publication of a well-reviewed book detailing the episode, the founding of a new phage center, IPATH (Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics), at UCSD in 2017, and the establishment of the “Thomas L. Patterson Graduate Fellowship” specifically given to the CPT in order to promote phage research. The IPATH leadership team visited the CPT on Jan 14-15, 2019 for the inaugural awarding of the Thomas Patterson Graduate Fellowship, and the establishment of the alliance between the two centers in phage clinical applications on a compassionate-use, individual-case basis.
Thomas L. Patterson Graduate Fellowship recipients
2019 recipient: Adriana Hernandez Morales
Adriana is the inaugural recipient of the Thomas L. Patterson Graduate Fellowship, in recognition of her contribution to the development of a phage cocktail used to treat the persistent, multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter infection in the Patterson case. Co-supervised by Drs Ry Young and Jason Gill, her PhD research focused on Acinetobacter baumannii phages and their application in phage therapy. Her work also characterized phage depolymerases in bacterial capsule degradation.
2020 recipient: Laith Harb
Laith did his PhD. in Dr. Lanying Zeng’s lab. Using fluorescence microscopy and genetic techniques, Laith worked to discern key mechanistic details describing how dynamic pili promote viral entry into the host cell. His research uncovered a telling phenomenon associated with ssRNA phage infection: initial
penetration of the viral payload causes breakage of host pili. This provides a selective
advantage for the infecting phage, suggesting that this phenomenon may be widespread among other pilus-specific phage systems.
2021 recipient: Justin Boeckman
Justin did his PhD in Dr. Jason Gill’s lab. His PhD research was on the role of the gut microbiome in chronic inflammatory diseases and the evaluation of phage for targeted microbiome engineering. More specifically, Justin’s research involves the evaluation of pathogenic E. coli and sulfate-reducing bacteria’s role in chronic intestinal inflammation disorders, such as Ulcerative Colitis, and the isolation and characterization of bacteriophages infecting Shigatoxigenic E. coli and the anaerobic
Desulfovibrio spp.
2022 recipient: Jirapat Thongchol
Jirapat did his PhD in Dr. Junjie Zhang’s lab. His research focuses on solving the structures of ssRNA bacteriophages, specifically those infecting Pseudomonas aeruginosa through the type IV pilus (T4P) as a receptor. By studying the structure of these ssRNA phages, his work helped us understand how they evolve structurally to target their hosts. We can exploit this structural information to reduce the virulence of these pathogenic bacteria.
2023 recipient: Zihao Yu
Zihao did his PhD in Dr. Lanying Zeng’s lab. His research focused on using fluorescent microscopy techniques to visualize individual phage genomes and quantitatively analyze the processes of genome translocation and replication dynamics. The working systems mainly involved the paradigm temperate phage lambda and the single-stranded RNA phage PP7. His work helps to understand the fundamental mechanisms during phage infection and provides valuable tools for phage biology research.
2024 recipient: Frankie Antillon
Frankie conducted research under the mentorship of Dr. Ryland Young. Her research centered on single-gene lysis (Sgl) systems of single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) bacteriophages, which play a crucial role in lysing host bacterial cells to release new viral particles. Frankie’s work focused on characterizing and identifying Sgl proteins that inhibit bacterial cell wall synthesis, providing potential insights for novel antibiotic development.
2024 recipient: Michael Awuah
Michael is a Microbiology Ph.D. candidate in Dr. Jolene Ramsey’s lab. His research focuses on the process of lysis inhibition, a mechanism by which certain phages can dramatically increase their production yield—by as much as 10 to 100 times—under specific environmental conditions. He has identified a conserved protein essential for lysis inhibition. By unraveling the molecular basis of phage yield optimization, Michael’s findings could pave the way for enhanced phage production methods, enabling both therapeutic applications against drug-resistant infections and facilitating new biotechnological advances.
Seeking phage therapy
The CPT has been involved in several clinical phage treatment cases. In these cases, we have identified and produced phages in collaboration with a team of medical doctors and other clinical professionals who prescribe and oversee treatments. The CPT is not able to make any diagnosis of diseases or provide treatment directly to any patient.
The CPT has been working with the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH) at UC San Diego to connect patients and their physicians with phage treatment. In general, the initial inquiry for the phage therapy suitability is made by the physician or the infectious disease specialist who has direct responsibility for patient care. The physician will then discuss the patient’s case with physicians at the IPATH for potential treatment.
Phage therapy as human medicine is still considered to be highly experimental and it may not be suitable for all cases.
Contact cpt@tamu.edu if there are further inquiries.
Phage therapy & related publications
Development and Use of Personalized Bacteriophage-Based Therapeutic Cocktails To Treat a Patient with a Disseminated Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Infection. Schooley RT, Biswas B, Gill JJ, Hernandez-Morales A, Lancaster J, Lessor L, Barr JJ, Reed SL, et al. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2017 Sep 22;61(10):e00954-17.
Comparative genomics of Acinetobacter baumannii and therapeutic bacteriophages from a patient undergoing phage therapy. Liu M, Hernandez-Morales A, Clark J, Le T, Biswas B, Bishop-Lilly KA, Henry M, et al. Nat Commun. 2022 Jun 30;13(1):3776.
Therapeutic Bacteriophages for Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections in Animals and Humans. Zagaliotis P, Michalik-Provasek J, Gill JJ, Walsh TJ. Pathog Immun. 2022 Oct 17;7(2):1-45.
Therapeutic Potential of Intravenous Phage as Standalone Therapy for Recurrent Drug-Resistant Urinary Tract Infections. Le T, Nang SC, Zhao J, Yu HH, Li J, Gill JJ, Liu M, Aslam S. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2023 Apr 18;67(4):e0003723.
Phage Milagro: a platform for engineering a broad host range virulent phage for Burkholderia. Yao G, Le T, Korn AM, Peterson HN, Liu M, Gonzalez CF, Gill JJ.J Virol. 2023 Nov 30;97(11):e0085023. doi: 10.1128/jvi.00850-23.
