SynPhONY is developing a pipeline to improve the selection and design of bacteriophages as therapeutics for infectious diseases. By combining human-relevant infection models with phage engineering and advanced laboratory and computational approaches, the project aims to accelerate phage-based drug discovery and diagnostics.
Project period: 2026–2028
Disease area: Infectious diseases
Focus: Antimicrobial-resistant urinary tract infections and skin wound infections
Project lead:
Hanne Ingmer
Professor, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences
University of Copenhagen
hi@sund.ku.dk
AIM
Antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) pathogens are making some infections increasingly difficult to treat. Particularly chronic wound and urinary tract infections (UTI) are notoriously hard-to-treat because they involve bacteria which are highly resistant to antibiotics and organised in protective structures (e.g., biofilms).
Bacterial viruses (phages) offer a promising solution to treat AMR infections, yet phages can fail in clinical application. A major reason is the absence of predictive, human-relevant models for preclinical phage evaluation. Conventional in vitro models fail to reproduce infection conditions, such as human tissue complexity and biofilm formation, while animal models raise ethical and scalability concerns.
SynPhONY aims to create a pipeline for the design and selection of phages for therapeutics for infectious diseases. The goal is to empower academic, clinical, and industry stakeholders with resources to accelerate phage-based drug discovery and diagnostics.
APPROACH
SynPhONY combines advanced experimental and computational approaches to select, engineer and test phages with improved therapeutic potential.
The project will:
Develop human-relevant infection models
Advanced in vitro human skin and bladder models will be developed into scalable models of urinary tract and wound infections for testing phage efficacy.
Build and optimise phage libraries
The team will combine established phage collections with newly isolated phages from patients and the hospital environment and engineer phages to improve their activity against the target infections.
Validate therapeutic potential
Selected phages will be tested in the developed infection models and in human ex vivo skin wound infections.
Explore combination treatments
The project will investigate whether phages can work in combination with medical devices and anti-infective drugs.
Hanne Ingmer, Project Lead
“Only when companies, hospitals, and universities join forces can phage therapy move from promise to practice and truly take on the challenge of antimicrobial resistance. That is what SynPhONY is about, guiding selection and design of phages for therapy.”
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
SynPhONY aims to establish more effective ways of identifying and developing phages for therapeutic use. This will equip academia, clinics, and industry with an urgently needed fundamental tool to combat the AMR crisis.
The expected outcomes include
Validated novel approach for therapeutic phage selection
Robust, humanized infection models with defined infection parameters
Phage libraries with expanded host range, killing efficacy and confirmed efficacy in humanized infection models
Scalable interaction platform to test compatibility with delivery devices and efficacy in combination with other anti-infective drugs
Proof-of-concept demonstrated via bacterial killing under disease-simulating conditions.
Open-access protocols and genomics datasets in FAIR-compliant repositories
Open access publications, public and expert outreach, conference presentations
THE SynPhONY TEAM
ACADEMIC TEAM MEMBERS
Hanne Ingmer
Professor, Dept. of Veterinary and Animal Sciences
University of Copenhagen
Ditlev E. Brodersen
Professor, Dept. of Molecular Biology
Aarhus University
Mariaceleste Aragona
Associate Professor, Dept. Of Biomedical Sciences
University of Copenhagen
Mette Damkjær Bartels
Clinical Associate Professor, Dept. of Clinical Microbiology
University of Copenhagen / Amager and Hvidovre Hospital
Expertise: antimicrobial resistance, bacterial quorum sensing, phage biology and genetics
Expertise: microbial protein structure and bacterial defence mechanisms against phages
Expertise: stem-cell biology, mechanobiology and regenerative medicine
Expertise: clinical microbiology, antimicrobial resistance and epidemiology
INDUSTRIAL TEAM MEMBERS
Lene Feldskov Nielsen, Director of Pre-Clinical Chronic care, Coloplast A/S
Matthias Steiger, Head of Translational Partnerships, Invitris
Peter Olofsson-Sahl, CEO, Inicure AB
Eva Maria Kalbhenn, Director, Phagenzentrum LABOKLIN GmbH & Co. KG
Wolfgang Beyer, Scientific advisor, Phagenzentrum LABOKLIN GmbH & Co. KG
Adèle James, CTO, Phagos
Andrea di Gioacchino, Head of Data, Phagos
INDUSTRY PARTNERS
COLOPLAST
Coloplast A/S is a leader in medical devices and provides expertise and samples for bacterial and phage isolation.
INVITRIS
Invitris is a leader in synthetic biology and provides expertise and a synthetic bioengineering platform.
INICURE
Inicure AB is a leader in antimicrobials and will provide immune-modulatory compounds and preclinical data.
LABOKLIN
Laboklin GmbH & Co. KG is a leader in diagnostics and provides expertise, bacterial collections, phage collections, and helps with phage characterisation and improvement.
PHAGOS
Phagos is a leader in phage biotechnology and provides expertise, bacterial collections, phage collections, and AI tools.
Peter Olofsson-Sahl, Inicure
“Diverse and innovative solutions are key to fighting the global threat of antimicrobial resistance. SynPhONY allows us to explore such solutions by testing combined treatments of our immune-stimulating drugs with phages.
Preliminary tests by an early collaboration with the Ingmer Lab have already given us promising results, and we are looking forward to continuing this important work along with our SynPhONY partners.”
ABOUT ODIN
ODIN brings researchers from academia and industry together to co-create need-driven research projects that can lead to new treatments, diagnostics, tools, and technologies. We fund the strongest project ideas through competitive funding calls. Companies cannot receive ODIN funding, but participation is free of charge and gives access to academic expertise, new collaborations, and opportunities to explore early-stage research challenges.
ODIN is supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Lundbeck Foundation.
CONTACT ODIN
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