Gina Suh: How a Mayo Clinic doctor helps her patients get phage therapy

What do doctors think about phage therapy? Jessica Sacher (Stanford microbiologist & Phage Directory cofounder) and Joe Campbell (former NIH program officer) talk to Mayo Clinic infectious disease physician Dr. Gina Suh about how phages have helped her patients, what's been hardest, where she's hopeful, and where things have actually gotten worse.

We discuss Gina's journey into the field, the lessons learned from treating patients (particularly her first one — now-patient advocate John Haverty), and the importance of careful patient selection. The conversation highlights the need for more research, infrastructure, and funding to advance phage therapy as a viable treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections. We also explore the challenges of standardization in phage susceptibility testing and the future of phage therapy in clinical practice.

Takeaways

Phage therapy has shown promise but requires careful patient selection.
Lessons from John Haverty's case have shaped current practices.
Pharmacokinetics play a crucial role in treatment success.
Research on phage behavior in healthy and infected individuals is needed.
Neutralizing antibodies may impact phage efficacy but are not fully understood.
Infrastructure for phage therapy is lacking and needs development.
Standardization in phage susceptibility testing is essential for progress.
Biofilms present significant challenges in treating infections with phages.
Funding for phage research is critical but remains a challenge.
The future of phage therapy may involve both fixed cocktails and personalized approaches.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to our new phage therapy series (cohosted by former NIAID program officer Joe Campbell - welcome Joe!)
01:23 Dr. Gina Suh's journey into phage therapy
06:01 How Gina has shifted how she selects patients for phage therapy
14:35 Challenges Gina has faced with phage therapy
17:46 Research needs: what the field should be studying
26:16 Infrastructure needs: Gina's wishlist
44:34 Gina's phage therapy aspirations
55:18 Why are there no support groups for antibiotic resistance?

Learn more:
Paper by Gina and team: Considerations for the use of phage therapy in clinical practice: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35041...

Video: Gina Suh and John Haverty talk about John's treatment with phages (2021):    • PHAVES #20: Phage therapy: a doctor-patien...