Manufacturing Bacteriophages for Precision Medicine
Phages are capable of specifically and reliably infecting and killing bacteria but are harmless to human cells. They can therefore be administered to patients as a cure for bacterial infections. This process is called:
...are unsafe for manufacturer and patient. Giant flasks of pathogenic bacteria are cultivated in order to isolate therapeutic bacteriophages.
With a cell-free production system we utilize one of the most revolutionary concepts of synthetic biology to produce therapeutic bacteriophages. Based on personalized diagnostics, bacteriophage DNA is chosen from a library and subjected to extensive quality assessment procedures to ensure a safe and effective application.
Because our raw material is DNA, phage therapy based on well-defined phages is no longer a fantasy.
State of the art DNA sequencing tools are combined with bioinformatics to precisely determine the amount of contaminants in a sample.
The phage genome DNA is extensively purified, resulting in a high quality template with minimal contamination.
Production of bacteriophages in a cell-free system ensures a fast and reliable application. Furthermore, working in a cell-free environment enables host independent production of phages in only 2.5% of the conventional production volume while demanding no biosafety regulations.
At less than $10 per treatment, Phactory allows for a highly competitive production price.
Manufacturing in Phactory can be scaled up for bulk production.
Phactory is an open system. This allows for the incorporation of modified proteins while leaving the genome unmodified, thereby achieving modularity without genetic modifications.
Host independence eliminates the need to cultivate pathogens to produce bacteriophages.
A thorough quality control structure assures that the produced bacteriophages are pure and effective. Risk of toxic contamination is eliminated.
Purity is essential for any therapeutic application. We use third generation sequencing to guarantee absence of DNA contamination in the manufacturing process.
Phactory assembles phages outside of living cells and is therefore free of most biological contaminants. We engineered the manufacturing system to reduce immunogenicity in humans by several orders of magnitude.
The phages assembled by Phactory are purified to remove any genetically modified material before leaving a controlled lab environment.
Bacteriophage therapy covers a broad range of potential applications. We engineered custom hardware to package bacteriophages for oral treatment. Our packaging procedure is the last step of a personalized on-site manufacturing process.
Phactory and phages are fragile components. We combined various techniques to enable phage assembly outside of a lab.
We demonstrated lyophilization of Phactory components in order to enable long range transport.
Producing phages in Phactory is so simple that it allows any doctor to apply phage therapy on-site.
Our bacteriophages are now ready for therapy. Phactory is fast and reliable enough to be an oral bedside application.
In cooperation with phage therapy pioneers in Belgium, we safely produced functional phages against EHEC – a deadly pathogen.