Fighting Perinatal Infection with Phage Therapy
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 28 November 2020
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This podcast explores how one researcher is working to keep babies safer without turning to antibiotics. Group B Streptococcus (GBS) presence in the mother is a leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Doctors often treat mothers with antibiotics to curb the infection, which presents its own complications. Richard interviews a microbiologist working on alternatives.
Listen and learn
- How GBS transmission happens and what screening processed is used,
- What different strains of GBS exist and are they equally infectious, and
- How phage therapy may be the best solution to decrease infection rates while leaving the microbiome of the baby balanced and healthy.
In this episode, Richard speaks with a researcher specializing in perinatal microbiology and infections of the perinatal period. She examines how these infections can modify the outcome for mothers and babies. By looking at the epidemiology and how GBS strains change regarding capsule type and other factors in different regions, she hopes to learn more about the bacteria to utilize a bacteriophage for infecting the bacteria.
What's a bacteriophage versus a virus? One way to understand the difference is to consider the host: bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. The bacteriophage life cycle is intertwined with the host bacteria, and many researchers are looking at bacteriophages in the human body as a treatment alternative to antibiotics.
Because antibiotics are used to treat bacterial versus viral infections and can kill beneficial organisms inhabiting the baby, phage therapy may benefit babies in multiple ways. GBS transmission occurs during the vaginal birth process if the mother has the bacteria. While some babies can remain healthy despite this, others are infected with harmful results including death. Therefore, widespread screening is in place, testing the mother.
Generally a mother is given antibiotics a few hour before labor. This microbiologist is researching candidate phages for therapy and also trying to understand more about natural exposure to phages during pregnancy. Listen in for more about this dynamic and potentially life-saving work.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Forget frequently asked questions common sense common knowledge or Google how about advice from a real genius |
| 0:06.8 | 95% of people in any profession are good enough to be qualified and licensed 5% go and beyond. They become very good at what they do. |
| 0:15.0 | But only 0.1% are real Jesus. |
| 0:18.3 | Richard Jacobs has made it his life's mission to find them for you. |
| 0:22.3 | He hunts down and interviews geniuses in every |
| 0:24.7 | field, sleep science, cancer, stem cells, ketogenic diets and more. Here come the geniuses. |
| 0:30.1 | This is the Finding Genius Podcast. |
| 0:33.0 | That are Richard Jacobs. |
| 0:35.0 | Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Finding Genius Podcast. |
| 0:40.0 | And we're going to talk about bacteriophages, you know, the viruses that prey upon bacteria, and she calls them bacterial fages, so tomato, tomorrow, it's okay. |
| 0:50.0 | Thanks for having me, Richard. |
| 0:51.0 | Tell me about your research and like your history. |
| 0:53.5 | How did you get into studying bacteria? |
| 0:56.0 | Yes, well, I'm a microbiologist, |
| 0:57.9 | but I'm really interested in perinatal microbiology. |
| 1:02.1 | So looking at pregnancy and early life and the sort of microbes |
| 1:07.0 | that are involved in that stage and really looking at infection and how we can sort of modify the outcomes for mothers and their babies. |
| 1:16.9 | So I think really for me I really love babies but I also love microbes and it seems like a bit of an odd mix but for me it really it combines both of those |
| 1:29.2 | passions I guess. |
| 1:31.2 | So are you studying what microbe transmission from mother to baby? |
| 1:35.2 | We're like what you know how did these two come together? So I've really been |
| 1:40.3 | looking at in particular pre-term birth so when babies are born too early |
... |
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