Unravelling Haemophilus influenzae and bacteriophage dynamics in the human upper respiratory tract (360G-Wellcome-207228_Z_17_Z)

Haemophilus influenzae is a pathogen that infect the human upper respiratory tract to cause diseases such as pneumonia and is associated with chronic diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis (CF) (Riesbeck, 2010). DNA sequence analysis of H. influenzae revealed the acquistion of novel genes mediated by phages which have not been identified; however, six H. influenzae phages have been identified of which HP1c1 is well characterised (Williams et al., 2002). The pathogen can change phenotype to escape HP1c1 but this makes it more vulnerable to the host immune system suggesting that phages impact the interaction of the of H. influenza with the host cell. During this project, we will isolate new H. influenzae phages from infected patients to better understand the pathogen dynamics in the respiratory tracts which could direct therapeutic towards treating these respiratory tract infections.