Phage therapy is a method mostly unheard of to the public due to its only recent viability in the feild. Emerging technologies often cause skepticism, and fear in the public, and for this reason it is incredibly important to contribute to public understanding of this project. People need to be comfortable with the food they eat every day, and part of that means understanding phage therapy and its roll in agriculture. With this goal in mind, Anna and Roxy appeared as guests on the Sci-Files run by PHD students Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes. We were able to engage in conversation about our project and explain to them about what we are doing with our synthetic biology project. This podcast was recorded and put on the 88.9 FM Impact Radio station live on September 25th, 2022. The Sci-Files cover a wide range of research topics by MSU students and has a broad fanbase outside the synthetic biology community. Through this partnership, knowledge about phage therapy will be able to better diffuse through society as a whole. For those interested in listening to the episode, it is linked in the footer below.
Throughout the Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle, our team considered the surrounding community in how we approached the project. As a Land Grant university, Michigan State has a long history of investigating sustainability and harmony with the natural world. This institutional ethos guided our design greatly, as we were conscious of the real world impacts of our research. Our original plan was to make a deadlier phage capable of reporducing faster, but our ideas were challenged and we grew from them
In conversations with George Sundin, Mark Forbush, and Krirstin Poley, experts in the production agriculture industry, we worked to ensure the impact of our work would be most effective and usable by farmers. However, this led us to make some compromises. The main challenges in the feild were costs to farmers, and phage longevity. This information forced us to change our plan from creating phage that were more deadly to bacteria, to increasing the longevity of phage, and making applications more affordable and feasible for farmers. Thus, we focused on creating a phage “sunscreen” from the SpyCatcher-SpyTag system to attach protective molecules, screening the phage from harmful UV radiation.
Below is a video showcasing some of the highlights from our meetings with these experts.
Highlights from our meeting with Kristin Poley, the research manager of the Corn Marketing Program of Michigan.
Highlights from our meeting with Mark Forbush, MSU Extension Educator and state advisor to the Michigan FFA. MSU Extention is the land grant program in which MSU offers its research to the farmers who work with the university.