The invention relates to methods, uses, systems, arrays, engineered nucleotide sequences and vectors for inhibiting bacterial population growth or for altering the relative ratio of sub-populations of first and second bacteria in a mixed population of bacteria. The invention is particularly useful, for example, for treatment of microbes such as for environmental, medical, food and beverage use. The invention relates inter alia to methods of controlling microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) or biofouling of a substrate or fluid in an industrial or domestic system.

There is disclosed a method of engineering bacteriophages comprising: identifying a bacteriophage with only one attachment gene; isolating said bacteriophage; removing said attachment gene from the genome of said bacteriophage; and inserting a non-natural attachment gene into the genome of said bacteriophage wherein said non-natural attachment gene is specific for attaching to a selected bacteria. There is also disclosed a mutant bacteriophage comprising a heterologous nucleic acid sequence encoding a first specific attachment gene, the first specific attachment gene being different than an inactivated attachment gene and being specific for a selected bacteria. In another embodiment, there is disclosed a method of eliminating a microbial contaminant, the method comprising: obtaining one or more lytic enzymes produced by a mutant bacteriophage; applying the one or more lytic enzymes to a bacterial contaminant, without prior infection of the bacterial contaminant with a bacteriophage, to eliminate the bacterial contaminant.

Disclosed is preparation of a cocktail as a therapeutic agent for cow mastitis and use thereof. A compatibility of phages against the main pathogenic bacteria of cow mastitis is utilized in combination with a specific preparation method to prepare and obtain a therapeutic cocktail preparation. The therapeutic phage cocktail preparation for cow mastitis provided in the disclosure is easy to prepare, short in course of treatment and quick in effect. It has better therapeutic effect on both clinical cow mastitis and recessive mastitis than that of antibiotics and antimicrobial peptide and is expected to solve the problem of bacterial resistance in the treatment of cow mastitis, thereby reducing or getting rid of the troubles of diseases such as mastitis in cows, which is of potential development value in cow farming.

The subject matter of the instant invention relates to methods of compounding compositions comprising bacteriophage effective for treating bacterial infections, including but not limited to, multidrug resistant bacterial infections. The invention also relates to compositions, bacterial diversity sets, and phage libraries prepared according to the methods of the instant invention.

The present disclosure features compositions and methods for the treatment of bacterial infections, such as bacterial infections caused by bacterial cells residing within a host cell (e.g., a mammalian cell, e.g., immune cell, e.g., macrophage or dendritic cell). The compositions and methods include delivering antimicrobial agents to specifically target the intracellular compartment (endosome, phagosome, lysosome, or cytosol) in which the bacterial cell resides.

There is proposed a method for the sterilization of products containing bacteriophages in a manner that will allow the bacteriophages to retain their activity and infectivity. Products containing bacteriophages are exposed to supercritical CO.sub.2 under conditions causing little or no damage to structural integrity of the bacteriophages or to the structural properties of biodegradable scaffolds containing the bacteriophages.

The present disclosure features compositions and methods for the treatment of bacterial infections, such as bacterial infections caused by bacterial cells residing within a host cell (e.g., a mammalian cell, e.g., immune cell, e.g., macrophage or dendritic cell). The compositions and methods include delivering a bacteriophage and an antibacterial lytic protein to the intracellular computment (endosome, phagosome, lysosome, or cytosol) in which the bacterial cell resides.

A method for reducing the population of at least one adipogenic bacteria species, the method comprising the following steps: a) providing a biologic sample which comprises at least one adipogenic bacteria species; and b) providing bacteriophages of at least one bacteriophage species which are specific to at least one adipogenic bacteria species and comprise at least one nucleic acid functionally bound to a promoter and/or to a regulatory element; and c) exposing the biologic sample to and incubating it with the bacteriophages, incubation taking place until the population of the adiopogenic bacteria species has been reduced by at least 70%; as well as relating to bacteriophages and their use.

A method of preserving one or more chemical and/or biological species in a polymer matrix comprising pullulan and trehalose is described. The method includes combining the one or more chemical and/or biological species, an aqueous pullulan and a trehalose solution and drying the resultant mixture to provide a solid polymeric matrix in the form of a powder and/or with a water content of less than 10 wt %. The polymeric matrix comprising the one or more chemical and/or biological species and its use, for example, in biological preparations and medicaments is also described.

The invention relates to methods, uses, systems, arrays, engineered nucleotide sequences and vectors for inhibiting bacterial population growth or for altering the relative ratio of sub-populations of first and second bacteria in a mixed population of bacteria. The invention is particularly useful, for example, for treatment of microbes such as for environmental, medical, food and beverage use. The invention relates inter alia to methods of controlling microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) or biofouling of a substrate or fluid in an industrial or domestic system.