BACTERIOPHAGES for HEALTH and BIOTECHNOLOGY
The Skvortsov Lab is a team of scientists working on bacteriophages. We are based at the School of Pharmacy of Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. Despite being first described over a century ago and playing key role in some of the biggest discoveries in biology, bacteriophages remain a relatively unexplored and underutilised resource. We believe that bacteriophages have a great potential to be used in the treatment of bacterial infections, especially resistant to antimicrobials, as well as in biotechnology and in many other economically important areas.
We want to see a future where the full potential of bacteriophages is realised and they are used to improve the quality of life of people in Northern Ireland and around the world. To achieve this, we are working on the development of novel bacteriophage-based pharmaceutical formulations, as well as on the characterisation of bacteriophages and their enzymes using a combination of computational and experimental approaches.
We are open to collaborations and are always happy to discuss new ideas. If you have a project in mind that you think we might be interested in, please get in touch with us. We would be particlularly interested in projects invovling genetic engineering of bacteriophages and their enzymes, bioinformatics analysis of viral genomes and metagenomic datasets, and synthetic microbiology projects.
Highlights
Our Research
We are developing several novel formulations for bacteriophage delivery, including liposomes, microneedles and deep eutectic solvents. We are also exploring the potential of using bacteriophages in combination with other antimicrobial agents and conducting computational studies to identify novel bacteriophage enzymes with biotechnological potential.
Our Publications
Take a look at our publications to learn more about our research and see what we have been up to recently.
Our Team
Our team is a diverse group of individuals with different backgrounds and interests who are excited about phages and share a common goal of improving human health and wellbeing through our phage research. We are always looking for new members to join us, so if what we do sounds interesting please get in touch!