Jessica Sacher, PhD
Phage Directory (Co-founder); Stanford University (Staff Scientist); Bollyky LabI'm a co-founder of Phage Directory and have a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Alberta (I studied Campylobacter phage biology).
For Phage Directory, I help physicians find phages for their patients, and I'm always trying to find new ways to help the phage field grow (especially through connecting people and highlighting awesome stuff I see happening in the field).
I spent 2022-2024 as a postdoc in Jon Iredell's group at Westmead Institute for Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, helping get Phage Australia off the ground. I helped set up workflows for phage sourcing, biobanking, diagnostics, production, purification and QC of therapeutic phage batches, and helped build data collection systems to track everything we did. We treated more than a dozen patients in our first year, and I'm so proud of that!
As of 2024, I joined the Bollyky lab at Stanford University as a Staff Scientist, where I'm focused on building the Stanford Center for Phage Pharmaceuticals. The ‘Phage Pharm’ will be a home for innovative phage pharmacodynamics and phage-immune interactions research, with a focus on translating findings directly to the bedside and back to the bench.
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- Enough phage for a farm: How Proteon Pharmaceuticals manufactures phages for livestock farmingFor this week's feature article, we interviewed Dr. Arkadiusz Wojtasik, a Production Director at Proteon Pharmaceuticals, about how his team uses the Cellexus CellMaker to produce phage for livestock farming.
- 2021: Empowering the phage communityHello 2021!! This year, we're focusing on empowering the phage community with the knowledge and tools it needs to overcome phage research challenges & help others do the same.
- Looking back on the year 2020For our last issue of 2020, we're reflecting back on Phage Directory's 2020 progress, and the incredible collaborators who have made it possible. We're really proud of the ways we've been able to connect and work with the phage community…
- Bringing phage susceptibility testing to IndiaPranav and Apurva Johri, founders of Vitalis Phage Therapy, recently set up a new framework that allows patients in India to get phage susceptibility testing done locally. We sat down with Pranav and Apurva to learn more about what this…
- C&T Round Up for November 2020This week, we're highlighting the four feature articles we published in November: two interviews, a guest blog post, and a recap of the month's PHAVES event!
- C&T Round Up for October 2020This week, we're highlighting the three feature articles we published in October: an interview, a guest blog post, and a recap of the two PHAVES events we hosted this month. Enjoy!
- From phage scale-up to phage piracy: October's PHAVES talksThis month, we hosted two episodes of PHAVES! Here are the recordings, along with brief summaries. Thanks very much to our special guests, Gordon Smith (Fixed Phage), Chloe Jerrold-Jones (Cellexus), and Dr. Rodrigo Ibarra-Chavez (University…
- C&T Round Up for September 2020This week, we're highlighting the four feature articles we published in September: two guest blog posts, an interview, and a recap of the two PHAVES events we hosted this month. Enjoy!
- From gut phages to fish phages: a recap of September's PHAVES talksThis month, we hosted two episodes of PHAVES! Here's your recap of both, along with links to the recordings. Thanks very much to our special guests, Dr. Sabrina Green and Dr. Panos Kalatzis.
- Using the CellMaker to manufacture phage: Q&A with TechnoPhage's Manuel GarridoThis week, we interviewed Dr. Manuel Garrido, a Production Specialist at TechnoPhage, about how they've scaled their phage manufacturing with the help of the Cellexus CellMaker.
- C&T Round Up for August 2020This week, we're highlighting the three feature articles we published in August: two interviews and a recap of the two PHAVES events we hosted this month. Enjoy!
- From phage therapy to viromics and phage careers: a recap of August's PHAVESThis month, we hosted two episodes of PHAVES! Here's your recap of both, along with links to the recordings. Thanks very much to our special guests, Pranav Johri, Apurva Virmani Johri, and Dr. Evelien Adriaenssens.
- How the Félix d'Hérelle Center manages its phagesSince 2003, Denise Tremblay has managed the phage collection at the Félix d'Hérelle Reference Center for Bacterial Viruses at the Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada. We interviewed Denise about how the center collects, stores and…
- C&T Round Up for July 2020This week, we're rounding up an extra helping of July 2020's phage news and research.
- From phage-disinfectant combos to phage AI: a recap of July's PHAVESThis month, we hosted two episodes of PHAVES! Here's your recap of both, along with links to the recordings. Thanks very much to our special guests, Dr. Elyse Stachler and Piotr Tynecki!
- Scaling up phage production: Q&A with Cellexus CEOThis week, we interviewed Gavin Hands, CEO of Cellexus, about the company's history of helping phage researchers and biotech companies scale up their phage production.
- C&T Round Up for June 2020This week, we're rounding up an extra helping of June 2020's phage news and research.
- Kicking off PHAVES, our virtual event series!We kicked off PHAVES this Tuesday! We discussed Phage Directory's origin story and future directions, answered questions from the community, and hosted a series of small-group breakout sessions. Here's how it all went!
- C&T Round Up for May 2020Continuing the new, once-monthly Capsid & Tail format we started in April, this week we're rounding up an extra helping of May 2020's phage news.
- Could phages cure asthma?This week, we're spotlighting CURE, a multidisciplinary project laying the foundation for treating and curing asthma with phages.
