Phage Therapy Clinical Support Fund
Patients in our community, and across the globe, seek out UC San Diego School of Medicine’s Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH) because we are a leader in the fight against antibiotic-resistant infections.
One such patient was Isabelle Carnell-Holdaway, 17, from the United Kingdom. In 2018 she was fighting a bacterial infection after a double-lung transplant performed to treat her cystic fibrosis. She was given a 1% chance for survival.
That’s when the IPATH team at UC San Diego teamed up with Isabelle’s doctors and phage researchers at the University of Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh team developed a phage cocktail that included genetically engineered phages and the IPATH team advised on the treatment protocol to successfully treat Isabelle with bacteriophage therapy.
Isabelle’s health dramatically improved after the treatment and she was able to leave the hospital. With her courage to fight, and the support of family and friends, she survived for four more years, but sadly passed away in 2022.
We recognize and honor Isabelle as the first patient in the world to overcome a bacterial infection through genetically engineered phages.
IPATH is launching the Phage Therapy Clinical Support Fund. This fundwill help support the needs of patients, like Isabelle, who require compassionate use of Phage Therapy. While UC San Diego Health strives to make life-saving medical treatments available to all, the financial aspects of health care treatment can be challenging and stressful.
With your support, we can help increase the accessibility of phage therapy so that patients worldwide can have hope in the battle against antibiotic-resistant infections:
Join us to reach our goal of $10,000 to support patient needs and increase accessibility to phage therapy. THANK YOU for your support!
For questions or more information, please contact: Teri McIntyre at tlmcintyre@UCSD.EDU