Otago University research fellow Dr Leah Smith was "elated" to have been awarded the 2024 L’Oreal-Unesco For Woman in Science Fellowship for her research into the evolving field of phage therapy.
Dr Smith said phages — viruses which only infect bacteria — could address the growing problem of antibiotic resistance — "so-called superbugs".
"People are getting infections and they're resistant to multiple antibiotics. That makes it very hard to actually treat the patient," she said.
"So you can use these phages, or viruses, to help kill the bacteria essentially, when there's no other options."
Phages were the most abundant entity on the planet, outnumbering bacteria 10-to-one, and were very diverse.
"They may only infect the bad bacteria that you're interested in. The more that we know about how they infect, obviously, the better the therapy can be more tailored."
Phage therapy was not practised in New Zealand and was highly regulated around the world, she said.
"The idea is that if we know more about how phages work, then we can pick the best ones.
"One day down the line, that could inform on using phages for clinical practices."
Her research would look at what characteristics made phages best at killing a range of bacteria across different environments.
"If we can uncover the genetics behind that, then we can figure out what characteristics would make the best phages to use for therapies in the future."
The fellowship included $25,000 and Dr Smith was particularly excited about the chance to meet and work with other woman in science.
She was keen to travel, "go to conferences and also meet new collaborators and learn some new techniques that I can bring back to Otago".
In the future, phage therapy could be used in human health and agriculture with phages designed to treat specific diseases, she said.
