inPhocus: “State of Phage” Survey Highlights Widespread Diverse Phage Isolation and Research in 40+ Countries

The phage field is clearly growing around the world, but no one had compiled a bird's eye view of the phages being collected and the phage research and development work being done. To fill this gap, and help establish a baseline for the current state of phage research so we can track and cultivate its growth and evolution over time, we created the State of Phage 2020 Survey. We aimed to get a snapshot of the strains and phages being collected around the world, and to capture activities and opinions of phage laboratories, including go-to methods, definitions of what phage characterization looks like, level of characterization of phages, preferred phage sharing practices, and more. Here we present an overview of selected results from our State of Phage 2020 survey, along with our interpretations and perspective on where to go from here as a field to maximize the impact of phage work being done around the globe. We conclude that given the magnitude of the task at hand (developing a robust understanding of the phages we have, which span hundreds of phages targeting hundreds of species), and given the large yet diverse collective phage expertise around the world, the best way forward is to develop systems that allow the field to combine forces, including making room for domain experts to focus on their specific strengths and investing in phage and data sharing practices.