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cameliarose 's review for:
The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug: A Memoir
by Steffanie Strathdee, Thomas Patterson
The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug is a medical memoir. In the first half of the book, the author Steffanie Strathdee tells how her husband Tom Patterson became sick in a trip to Egypt in 2015, diagnosed with acute pancreatitis, later infected with Acinetobacter baumannii that was resistant to every known antibiotic to scientists. A few months later he was in coma, facing multi-organ failure and dying. The second half of book describes the battle to find the "perfect predator" to kill the bacteria and save the patient.
In short, the perfect predator for the multi-drugs resistance bacteria is bacteriophages, i.e. viruses that feed on the bacteria. It's fascinating to read about the history of bacteriophage therapy. The therapy was discovered in 1915 (before Penicillin), but largely forgotten by the Western world after WII. It was not only because antibiotics were a much better weapon to fight bacteria infections (easier to manufacture, one type of antibiotic kills many types of bacteria), but also for political reasons. For a very long time bacteriophage therapy was only available in Russian and Eastern European countries such as Georgia. The tide is starting to change as multi-drugs resistance bacteria (known as super-bugs) killing more and more people while no new category of antibiotics has been discovered since 1980s. Tom Patterson is the patient zero of the new wave bacteriophage therapy in United States.
Today's bacteriophage therapy, even in its experimental stage and a long way from FDA approval, has moved way beyond what its inventor could possibly imagine. It's a high-tech, personalized medicine, in some cases even including gene editing.
It was a fungus that gave us penicillin. Now it's time for recruiting viruses. The Darwinian dance is beautiful and serendipitous.
Both Stefanie Strathdee and Tom Patterson became bacteriophage therapy advocate afterwards. Today Steffanie Strathdee co-directs The Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
In short, the perfect predator for the multi-drugs resistance bacteria is bacteriophages, i.e. viruses that feed on the bacteria. It's fascinating to read about the history of bacteriophage therapy. The therapy was discovered in 1915 (before Penicillin), but largely forgotten by the Western world after WII. It was not only because antibiotics were a much better weapon to fight bacteria infections (easier to manufacture, one type of antibiotic kills many types of bacteria), but also for political reasons. For a very long time bacteriophage therapy was only available in Russian and Eastern European countries such as Georgia. The tide is starting to change as multi-drugs resistance bacteria (known as super-bugs) killing more and more people while no new category of antibiotics has been discovered since 1980s. Tom Patterson is the patient zero of the new wave bacteriophage therapy in United States.
Today's bacteriophage therapy, even in its experimental stage and a long way from FDA approval, has moved way beyond what its inventor could possibly imagine. It's a high-tech, personalized medicine, in some cases even including gene editing.
It was a fungus that gave us penicillin. Now it's time for recruiting viruses. The Darwinian dance is beautiful and serendipitous.
Both Stefanie Strathdee and Tom Patterson became bacteriophage therapy advocate afterwards. Today Steffanie Strathdee co-directs The Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics at UC San Diego School of Medicine.