Grant: Project Grant

Child stunting is a major health problem in developing countries such as Bangladesh, where it has long-lasting health and socio-economic consequences. In the gut of stunted children, the bacterial communities normally present there (the gut microbiota) are different from those of healthy children. However, no specific bacterial pathogen has been identified as causing stunting, and current dietary and medical interventions only produce transient results. This project will explore if phages, viruses only infecting bacteria, could be used to manipulate bacterial communities in the gut to promote healthy child growth. We will determine how phage communities change during the growth of healthy and stunted children, before manipulating these two communities in animal models of stunting. Our data would provide information as to which phages could promote healthy growth, which phages interact with which bacterial hosts, and could be further selectively used in future targeted-phage based therapies.