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331 points breve | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.203s | source
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tovej ◴[] No.45027424[source]
Interesting, and potentially very good. But I can't help but wonder, like at least one other commenter, that this might have unexpected effects if applied at a larger scale. I know some viruses kill bacteria for instance. I don't know, something about universal applicability makes me a little uneasy.
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XorNot ◴[] No.45027539[source]
Bacteriophages don't infect things which aren't bacteria.

In fact they're so absurdly specific that while you could bathe in a solution of them and not get sick, they also frequently fail to infect slightly different members of the same species, which is why ultimately they never become antibiotic alternatives: having the right one on hand ranges from difficult to impossible.

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1. unddoch ◴[] No.45033240[source]
Yes, some phages are very specific - but not all of them! And we're slowly getting better at this: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01832-5