Staphylococcus epidermidis is one of the major human skin colonizers from birth. Although a beneficial member for setting up tissue homeostasis in early life, S. epidermidis is emerging as a life-threatening opportunistic pathogen causing neonatal sepsis. Whilst term infants house commensal strains, preterm infants harbor in their skin strains of S. epidermidis with pathogenic elements, high ability to form biofilms and antibiotic resistant cassettes. Naturally, intact skin prevents pathogen penetration, but it constitutes a stockage niche. Disruptions of skin integrity caused by i.e. indwelling catheters allows penetration of S. epidermidis into the blood leading to sepsis in the case of pathogenic strains.
The aim of the project is to investigate how phages could modulate the landscape of early life skin microbiota.
Our results will provide a framework for the development of target strategies to prevent skin accumulation of pathogenic Staphylococcus epidermidis and beyond that will lay the framework to modulate colonization by multidrug resistant bacteria.