Phage Functional Product Development Services

Background

Phage functional product development focuses on harnessing bacteriophages and their components for innovative applications across medicine, food safety, agriculture, diagnostics, and materials science. Phages offer several unique advantages over traditional antimicrobials, including high specificity, self-replication at the infection site, and low ecological impact. With advances in synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering, phages are increasingly being transformed into versatile tools far beyond their natural capabilities.

Applications

• Phage Therapy: Development of phage cocktails and personalized phage formulations targeting multidrug-resistant pathogens for clinical and veterinary use.
• Engineered Phage Derivatives: Lytic enzymes (e.g., endolysins) and genetically modified phages offer enhanced bacterial killing and specificity. CRISPR-loaded phages are emerging as tools to combat antibiotic resistance.
• Phage-Based Diagnostics: Engineered phages expressing fluorescent or reporter markers enable rapid, sensitive detection of bacterial pathogens in clinical or environmental settings.
• Drug Delivery and Nanomaterials: Phage capsids serve as programmable nanocarriers for drug delivery and as scaffolds for building novel materials like metal nanoparticles or bioelectronic components.

At Creative BioMart Microbe, we specialize in advanced phage formulation development services for functional products. From optimizing stability and delivery systems to customizing phage cocktails for targeted action, our end-to-end expertise accelerates your path from concept to market. Whether you're replacing traditional antimicrobials or launching next-gen biocontrol, let us help you unlock the full potential of bacteriophages—efficiently, effectively, and with scientific precision. Contact us today for more information!

Service Procedure

Service Details

• Product Concept Development: We collaborate with clients to define product objectives, application environments, and user needs. Feasibility studies, market research, and preliminary formulation strategies are developed to align product concepts with technical and regulatory viability.
• Phage Selection and Optimization: Using well-characterized and regulatory-compliant phages, we select or design phage combinations optimized for the intended application—targeting specific bacteria or microbiota modulation. Selection is based on efficacy, stability, host range, and formulation compatibility.
• Delivery System Design: We engineer delivery platforms suitable for the intended use—such as oral, dermal, nasal, or environmental exposure. These include encapsulated phages (liposomes, hydrogels, biopolymers), sprays, gels, creams, films, or ingestible formats like capsules and beverages.
• Formulation and Stability Testing: Our team develops stable, scalable formulations that preserve phage viability under manufacturing, storage, and usage conditions. Formulations are tailored for pH, temperature, and moisture sensitivity, and undergo accelerated and real-time stability testing.
• Prototyping and Performance Evaluation: Pilot batches and product prototypes are manufactured for performance testing under simulated use conditions. This includes efficacy testing (e.g., antibacterial effect, shelf life), user compatibility, and material compatibility for packaging and delivery systems.
• Regulatory & Commercial Support: We offer documentation and scientific support for regulatory filings, including GRAS, cosmetic regulations, or therapeutic product classification depending on market region. Commercialization guidance includes label claim substantiation, safety dossiers, and production scale-up planning.

Applications Supported

Personal Care & Hygiene Phage-infused cleansers, hand sanitizers, acne treatments, and deodorants	Nutraceuticals & Functional Foods Ingestible phage products for gut health, oral microbiome modulation, or dietary supplements	Medical Devices & Wound Care Phage-integrated dressings, sprays, and coatings for infection prevention	Animal Health Feed additives, topical products, and hygiene formulations for livestock and companion animals	Environmental & Surface Hygiene Consumer-grade and wipes targeting pathogenic bacteria in homes or public spaces

Our Advantages

• Targeted Expertise: Decades of combined experience in phage biology, synthetic biology, and microbiome engineering—ensuring scientifically robust, highly customized product development.
• End-to-End Solutions: From bench to shelf—we handle everything from phage discovery to formulation and regulatory support, streamlining your journey to market.
• Custom Host Range Optimization: We develop phage cocktails or engineered phages that maximize efficacy across your target microbial population while minimizing off-target risks.
• State-of-the-Art Characterization Tools: Equipped with electron microscopy, qPCR, metagenomics, and high-throughput screening platforms for precise phage profiling and rapid decision-making.
• Application-Oriented Formulation: Formulations are optimized for your unique delivery conditions—whether in animal feed, topical gels, sprays, or ingestible.
• Regulatory Navigation Support: We bridge the gap between science and compliance, helping you meet country-specific regulatory requirements in pharma, agricultural technology, or food sectors.
• Scalable Manufacturing Readiness: Process development is aligned with scalability and economic feasibility from the outset, reducing future production bottlenecks.

Case Study

Case Study 1: An engineered phage with an antibacterial CRISPR-Cas system was shown to reduce the E. coli burden in mice.

A broad-spectrum phage therapy was developed to target diverse, clinically relevant Escherichia coli strains while avoiding the downsides of antibiotics, such as microbiome disruption and resistance. Researchers screened 162 wild-type phages and identified eight with broad host coverage and suitable properties for engineering. These phages were modified with tail fibers and CRISPR–Cas systems to enhance specificity and effectiveness, especially against biofilms.

The resulting four-phage cocktail, SNIPR001, showed superior performance in reducing E. coli loads and preventing resistance compared to individual phages. SNIPR001 was well tolerated in animal models and is now in clinical development to treat E. coli infections, particularly in vulnerable patients with hematological cancers.

Figure 1. An overview of the SNIPR001 creation process. (Gencay et al., 2024)

Case Study 2: A novel serum-based diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease using an advanced phage-based biochip.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects 55 million people worldwide, but definitive diagnosis currently requires postmortem brain examination. This study tested novel engineered phages in a miniature biochip to detect Aβ-autoantibodies in patient sera for early, noninvasive diagnosis. Five out of six phages accurately distinguished AD patients from healthy controls. Combining two phages identified severe AD with 100% accuracy and mild-to-moderate cases with 90%. Though tested on a small sample, this innovative method shows great promise for clinical diagnosis and research.

Figure 2. Most phages significantly discriminated among severe AD, mild-to-moderate AD, and non-AD sera. a–f) The graphs report the quantitative analysis of the phagic weight across the different groups analyzed in this study. The phagic weight, which reflects the amount of conformational specific Aβ autoantibodies present in sera, was significantly different among the three groups, except phage 9IV1. g) pc89 was used as a negative control. (Rizzo et al., 2023)

FAQs

References:

1. Gencay YE, Jasinskytė D, Robert C, et al. Engineered phage with antibacterial CRISPR–Cas selectively reduce E. coli burden in mice. Nat Biotechnol. 2024;42(2):265-274. doi:10.1038/s41587-023-01759-y
2. Meile S, Kilcher S, Loessner MJ, Dunne M. Reporter phage-based detection of bacterial pathogens: design guidelines and recent developments. Viruses. 2020;12(9):944. doi:10.3390/v12090944
3. Pizarro-Bauerle J, Ando H. Engineered bacteriophages for practical applications. Biological & Pharmaceutical Bulletin. 2020;43(2):240-249. doi:10.1248/bpb.b19-00914
4. Rizzo MG, De Plano LM, Palermo N, et al. A novel serum-based diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease using an advanced phage-based biochip. Advanced Science. 2023;10(21):2301650. doi:10.1002/advs.202301650
5. Wang H, Yang Y, Xu Y, et al. Phage-based delivery systems: engineering, applications, and challenges in nanomedicines. J Nanobiotechnol. 2024;22(1):365. doi:10.1186/s12951-024-02576-4