treated with antibiotics. Research laboratories came together to find these phages by collecting, isolating, and exposing them to resistant M. abscessus that had been isolated from a patient in London. In vitro A bacteriophage known as Muddy had proved effective at killing the patient’s distinct M. abscessus strain (GD01), while phages like ZoeJ and BPs had reduced capabilities at infecting GD01. A mixture of phages, Muddy and engineered versions of ZoeJ and BPs, though, completely infected and killed GD01. In vivo A cocktail of bacteriophages, Muddy, ZoeJ, and BPs, effectively killed a strain of M. abscessus in vitro. The potential this showed encouraged the commencement of patient treatments towards the GD01 infection. Every 12 hours, the patient received a treatment of the bacteriophage cocktail. One day of treatment showed high bacteriophage levels in the bloodstream. This suggested that they were being released into the bloodstream and replicating to infect bacteria. No significant side effects were reported. The right phages were found for this patient, but a different strain may be sensitive to different phages. Type strain The type strain of M. abscessus, most commonly referred to as ATCC 19977, was isolated in 1953 from a human knee infection presenting with abscess-like lesions, leading to the strain being named "abscessus". The strain wasn't recognised as a distinct species until 1992, however, when DNA hybridisation work identified it as genetically distinct from its relative, M. chelonae. The genome of the type train was published in 2009. References This article incorporates public domain text from the CDC as cited External links Type strain of Mycobacteroides abscessus at BacDive - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase Mabellini - annotated, modeled structural proteome of Mycobacteroides abscessus HHMI report on the use of phage therapy Acid-fast bacilli abscessus Healthcare-associated infections Bacteria described in 1992