BACTERIOPHAGES – our invisible allies?

Bacteria are everywhere – inside us, around us, in food, water, and the environment.

But few people know that bacteria also have natural enemies: bacteriophages, viruses that infect, transform, or destroy bacteria. This invisible world is at the heart of the PHAGECONTROL research project, which is being conducted at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Biotechnology, under the leadership of principal investigator Dr. Anne Dragoš.

The researchers in the project are not studying phages merely as a biological curiosity, but as a key factor influencing the behavior of bacteria—from their resistance to properties that are important for health, the environment, and biotechnology.

Our laboratories are generating insights that could have a significant impact on the future development of alternatives to antibiotics and more sustainable biotechnological approaches.

The documentary about the PHAGECONTROL project takes viewers from everyday questions to microscopic worlds that are invisible to the naked eye but have a crucial impact on our world.

It reveals personal moments of researchers, surprises from the laboratory, and scientific questions to which we are only beginning to discover the answers. How can bacterial viruses help solve very human problems? The answers are provided by a story that begins where we least expect it—in the world of the invisible.