2. We talked in class about the idea of âphage therapy,â and that one objection to this idea is that phage must be grown in bacterial hosts, which may survive to be injected into and potentially harm the patient.
A. What is phage therapy? Why might it be important in the medical future?
B. One way to reduce the potential for bacterial contamination is to treat the phage preparation with chloroform, CHCl3, which destroys membranes. Looking at the chemical structure of chloroform, and considering the force that is mainly responsible for holding a membrane together, WHY do you think CHCl3 destroys membranes?
C. Even if there is no phage contamination by host bacteria, the fact that phage cause bacteria, to lyse can be harmful to people. This is especially true of Gram negative bacteria. If you have an infection caused by Gram negative bacteria, why might phage therapy prove toxic to you?
2. We talked in class about the idea of âphage therapy,â and that one objection to this idea is that phage must be grown in bacterial hosts, which may survive to be injected into and potentially harm the patient.
A. What is phage therapy? Why might it be important in the medical future?
B. One way to reduce the potential for bacterial contamination is to treat the phage preparation with chloroform, CHCl3, which destroys membranes. Looking at the chemical structure of chloroform, and considering the force that is mainly responsible for holding a membrane together, WHY do you think CHCl3 destroys membranes?
C. Even if there is no phage contamination by host bacteria, the fact that phage cause bacteria, to lyse can be harmful to people. This is especially true of Gram negative bacteria. If you have an infection caused by Gram negative bacteria, why might phage therapy prove toxic to you?
