Researchers from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW) are taking part in the PhageLand project, which aims to develop an intervention strategy to prevent the transfer of antibiotic resistance from wastewater to surface water. 

“The spread of antibiotic resistance in the environment has become a global problem and a real threat to public health”, says Dr Małgorzata Grzesiuk-Bieniek from the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Institute of Biology, SGGW. “We need new, possibly low-cost and environmentally friendly technologies to purify wastewater of antibiotics, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes”, the researcher emphasises.

The project involves public health research targeting the identification of multi-drug resistant bacterial pathogens in low- and middle-income countries in Eastern Europe. Phagotherapy (targeted removal of bacteria through the activity of bacterial viruses) will be adapted to eliminate multidrug-resistant pathogens from wastewater entering passive wastewater treatment systems.