Research Projects and Focus

Initial research will be focusing on patients with multidrug-resistant, chronic infections associated with cystic fibrosis, organ transplantation, and implantable hardware (e.g. pacemakers joint replacements, etc.)​.

Clinical Trials

IPATH is currently working to launch the first NIH-funded phage therapy clinical trial within the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Antibiotic Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG). Dr. Robert Schooley will serve as the Co-Primary Investigator, with initial site locations at IPATH, UC San Francisco and other ARLG clinical trial sites. This single-dose pilot study will focus on cystic fibrosis patients that are shedding Pseudomonas aeruginosa in expectorated sputum.

Phage Libraries

Burkholderia Patient Registry and Phage Library

In 2020, Dr. Saima Aslam was awarded a two-year grant, from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to create a Burkholderia-specific patient registry and lytic phage library. She is collaborating with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; University of Toronto; Duke University; Cleveland Clinic; Emory University; Université de Montréal; Vancouver General Hospital; Mayo Clinic, Rochester; University of Pennsylvania and Hadassah Medical Center to register Burkholderia-infected cystic fibrosis and lung transplant patients, and attempt to find matching phages against the patients' Burkholderia strains.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Phage Library

Dr. David Pride was awarded a 2-year grant in 2020, from Emily's Entourage (a non-profit organization that accelerates research and drug development for cystic fibrosis). This funding will be used to create a well-characterized anti-MRSA phage library. Dr. Pride hopes to use this phage library to treat lung infections in future patients with cystic fibrosis.  

For a list of recent publications by IPATH faculty, please see our Scientific Reports page.