Abstract
Although phage discovery is an unquestionable merit of the English bacteriologist Frederick W. Twort and the Canadian–French microbiologist Félix d’Hérelle, who both discovered phages over 100 years ago, the Polish history of phage studies also dates back to those years. In contrast to the Western world, developing phage treatment in Poland has never been abandoned despite the country’s tense history marked by the Second World War (WWII) and the communism era. Today, Poland takes a prominent and remarkable place in the phage research area. Furthermore, established in 2005, the Phage Therapy Unit at the Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy in Wrocław, the first such center within European borders, has quickly become a model for other centers in the world facing the issue of widespread antibiotic resistance. This article constitutes an attempt to fill the gap in the scientific literature by providing a comprehensive summary of the long tradition of phage research in Poland.
Highlights
Recent years have shown a remarkable boost in the development of phage treatment across the globe
In 2004, the leading national German daily newspaper Die Welt published an article about Polish phage therapy conducted at the Hirszfeld Institute entitled “Viren als Verbündete gegen Infektionen” [Viruses as allies against infections] with the conclusion that “Poland has taken on the international leadership in clinical phage therapy in the last decades” (Bettge, 2004)
In 1927, in her article published entirely in Polish she describes “d’Hérelle’s phenomenon” as the main driving force responsible for bacterial lysis (Fejgin, 1927). She predicted with great accuracy the future of phage research, concluding that “facts related to the discovery of invisible bacterial forms (. . .) are ready to shake faith in the immutability of bacterial species.”
Summary
Recent years have shown a remarkable boost in the development of phage treatment across the globe. In 2004, the leading national German daily newspaper Die Welt published an article about Polish phage therapy conducted at the Hirszfeld Institute entitled “Viren als Verbündete gegen Infektionen” [Viruses as allies against infections] with the conclusion that “Poland has taken on the international leadership in clinical phage therapy in the last decades” (Bettge, 2004). These efforts cannot be underestimated in the era of rapidly growing phage biotech startups that call themselves “clinicalstage” companies despite their little scientific background, experience in phage treatment in humans, and no significant achievements. We believe that Polish accomplishments in this field deserve proper attention in the history of phage research and therapy
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