Self-assembling nanofibrous bacteriophage microgels as sprayable antimicrobials targeting multidrug-resistant bacteria

This paper reports the development of self-assembling nanofibrous bacteriophage microgels as sprayable antimicrobials to target multidrug-resistant bacteria. The researchers crosslinked half a million self-organized phages to create soft microgels, producing over 35,000 microgels per square centimeter using a high-throughput template method. These microgels, composed entirely of viral nanoparticles, exhibited a self-organized nanofibrous texture and tunable autofluorescence. When loaded with virulent phages, the microgels effectively reduced multidrug-resistant *Escherichia coli* O157:H7 on food products, achieving up to a 6-log reduction in 9 hours.

Lei Tian, Leon He, Kyle Jackson, Ahmed Saif, Shadman Khan, Zeqi Wan, Tohid F. Didar, Zeinab Hosseinidoust