2017 Objectives
1. To Develop a phage-based Lyme diagnostic method
- Phelix is now looking for a partnership with a world leader for Lyme disease and other tick-borne related illnesses testing.
- We are seeking approval from the French Health Authorities to conduct a clinical trial with carriers versus a healthy control to test the specificity and sensitivity of the phage-based test for Borrelia spp. and to compare our test to the Elisa, Western Blot (IgG & IgM) and PCR of current official commercial tests.
- We are in the process of comparing the sensitivity of the phage-based test to LTT Elispot tests.
2. To Isolate and characterise lytic & temperate Borrelia spp. phages
- Phelix will work in partnership with veterinary agencies to search and isolate Borrelia phages in the bacteria’s natural environment.
- We will investigate lytic phage activity in Borrelia’s natural environment and ecosystem.
3. To Investigate the use of phages & phage-encoded enzymes as novel therapeutics
- Our research lab can now cultivate and harvest the natural phage-encoded enzymes with lytic properties.
- The next step is to carry out tests to discover the effectiveness of these phage-encoded enzymes, before moving to an animal model.