 The federal government has tapped a local company to help defend against superbugs. Gaithersburgs Adaptive Phage Therapeutics Inc. has earned a 10.2 million contract with the Department of Defense to help advance PhageBank, APTs collection of viruses that target specific pathogens and kill drug-resistant bacteria. A cure for superbugs represents a major unmet need in health care, making this contract a first step in addressing the worldwide crisis in antibiotic resistant infections, APT co-founder and CEO Greg Merrill said in a statement to the WBJ. 