New Stanford University program will sic bacteria-killing viruses on drug-resistant bacteria
A bacteriophage attacking a cell. Kolpona/Adobe Stock
By Bruce Goldman
A National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease grant kicks off a new program to combat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.
June 15, 2026
Paul Bollyky, MD, PhD, professor of infectious disease and of microbiology and immunology, has been named to lead The Center for Phage Pharmaceuticals at Stanford University. A grant of $9.5 million over a five-year period from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases kicks off the initiation of the program, with the purpose of accelerating clinical applications of research on bacteriophages, usually referred to as “phages.” These are viruses that naturally invade and kill bacteria, but not us, making them a potentially powerful weapon against a number of antibiotics-resistant infections.
Clinical applications of the program’s research could help defeat several antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens that are increasingly widespread among hospitalized patients, said Bollyky, the program’s designated director.
Antibiotic resistance has spread beyond high-risk patients to the broader hospital population. The leading major hospital “superbugs” are the so-called ESKAPE pathogens — Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter species. These bacterial species are considered critical threats because they not only resist drugs, but swap defense mechanisms and quickly adapt after being exposed to new antibiotics.
“We’re running into bacteria that are resistant to all the antibiotics we have, so we’re dipping into nature’s armamentarium,” Bollyky said. Phages infect and replicate exclusively in bacteria, leaving our own cells alone, he said. And because — unlike antibiotics — phages tend to be extremely selective for specific bacterial species, they spare our resident microbiomes.
Paul Bollyky
“We’re hoping to assemble not only a panoply of phages to treat people for hard-to-arrest bacterial infections but also the regulatory and pharmacological data needed to develop those phages as drugs for personalized therapies,” Bollyky said.
The Center for Phage Pharmaceuticals’ first efforts will target the delivery of appropriate phage therapies to the lung for the purpose of combatting P. aeruginosa infections in cystic fibrosis.
About Stanford Medicine
Stanford Medicine is an integrated academic health system comprising the Stanford School of Medicine and adult and pediatric health care delivery systems. Together, they harness the full potential of biomedicine through collaborative research, education and clinical care for patients. For more information, please visit med.stanford.edu.
Contact:
Bruce Goldman
Senior Science Writer
Stanford Health Care | School of Medicine
Office of Communications
(650)725-2106
goldmanb@stanford.edu
Source: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2026/06/bollyky-niaid-grant.html
“Reproduced with permission - Stanford Medicine”
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