Inside STAT: Superbug treatment named for patient who inspired its discovery

Mallory Smith had just turned 25 when she died in November 2017. The cause: a tricky bacterial infection that couldn’t be stopped with any cocktail of antibiotics. At the time, her father had the novel idea to find viruses that prey on bacteria, and inject these phages into his daughter’s lungs. But by the time the experimental treatment reached her lungs, it was too late. And yet, because of her, scientists have kept up the search for an effective phage. Now, more than two years later, microbiologists at Israel’s Hebrew University have described a new virus that’s especially good at combating the superbug that colonized Smith’s lungs. “This was the best [phage],” Ronen Hazen, who led the team, says, adding, “and we decided to name it after her.” STAT’s Eric Boodman has more here.