How sewage becomes medicine

The idea of using bacteriophages — viruses that invade and destroy pathogens — to combat infectious diseases has long held promise in the minds of academics. But for years, the idea of injecting live, genetically modified viruses into actual people struck regulators as a little too risking-the-Apocalypse, and the field of phage therapy stalled.

Now, as STAT's Eric Boodman reports, that's starting to change. Researchers and entrepreneurs are again delving into bacteriophages, taking live viruses from hospital pipes, fecal samples, and polluted rivers in hopes of crafting human treatments for dangerous diseases.

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