“The biologist Torelló Joan Colom works with a reservation at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom to improve the effect of bacteriophages against pathogenic bacteria”
Torelló, Jaume Espuny
Bacteriophages, also called phages, are viruses that only infect bacteria and kill them. They are abundantly present in nature and therefore, fresh meat, especially poultry, fish and other foods, are often detected on the surface and are increasingly being used as an alternative to antibiotics. Last February Torelló Joan Colom defended his doctoral thesis with international mention on the encapsulation of bacteriophages basically to improve their action against salmonel.la in infected broiler chickens. The results of this work ended in a scientific publication and have resulted in the application for a patent.
Colom, 26 years old, is a biologist, specializing in microbiology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is currently working at the University of Nottingham in the UK, focusing on the positive effects of encapsulated bacteriophages on chickens and, therefore, on humans. The main conclusion of this study is, according to Colom, that the encapsulation of bacteriophages improves the effect they have against pathogenic bacteria for two reasons: “First, because they are encapsulated they are more protected and, at the same time, more concentrated; Second, because they are retained more time in the intestine and, therefore, the effect is more prolonged “. No encapsulation had not been tested with animals. Encapsulated, they were tested on broiler chickens and found to improve the effect on salmonella.
The research carried out can be very useful to develop efficient treatments against the pathogens of the meat, according to Colom, and, therefore, can be beneficial for the people who consume. With the results in hand, a patent has now been applied for in the European Union. From here, it will be necessary to have some interested company. In fact, however, there have already been some who have been in contact with researchers to treat foods to prevent salmonel.la infection, especially meats.
Nowadays, Colom continues to investigate in the same line, that is, the fefectes of the bacteriophages, but at the same time has initiated other projects to Nottinham, one of which is to seek, in collaboration with scientists from India, an effective treatment for cholera . And another, funded by Bill Gates, to treat salmonellosis in children of the Third World.
News published in el 9 Nou
