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Updated: Oct 23, 2025

Author Spotlight: Investigating Bacteriophage-Induced Immune Responses in Gnotobiotic Mice
Published on: January 26, 2024
Isolation and Functional Characterization of Fusobacterium nucleatum Bacteriophage
Mwila Kabwe1, Teagan Brown2, Heng Ku1
1Department of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, La Trobe University, Bendigo, VIC, Australia.
Abstract:
Bacteriophages are viruses that specifically lyse bacteria. They have demonstrated potential in applications as antibacterial agents in medicine, agriculture, and environmental remediation. Due to the complex and dynamic nature of the oral microbiome, antibiotic treatment of chronic, polymicrobial oral diseases may lead to dysbiosis. In these diseases, bacteriophages may provide targeted activity against oral bacteria without such disruption to the broader microbial community. In this chapter, we describe the methods for screening samples that may contain bacteriophages against oral pathogenic bacteria, and using the example of FNU1, the bacteriophage we isolated against Fusobacterium nucleatum, describe the process of bacteriophage purification and characterization.
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