Summit
29 Jan 2026
The Fleming Initiative is proud to announce our inaugural science summit, to be hosted in partnership with Imperial College London and the University of Copenhagen.
Running from 8.30 - 18.00 at the Sir Michael Uren Hub on Imperial's White City campus, this summit will convene leading researchers, healthcare practitioners and key enablers to build awareness of the potential of phage therapy and discuss the challenges and opportunities in translating phage biology from laboratory bench to patient bedside.
The first of the two sessions of the summit will focus on the Advances in Phage Biology that continue to build our understanding of phage-bacteria interactions. We will delve into newly characterised phage diversity, mechanisms of host recognition and take-over, and the intricate evolutionary arms race between phages and their bacterial prey. Experts in artificial intelligence will highlight the pivotal role machine-learning and cognitive computing can play in exploiting phages as precision and personalised antibacterial therapeutics.
The Phage Therapy – Challenges and Opportunities session will examine the regulatory hurdles and public perception, clinical trials, standardisation, and production and market readiness challenges that must be navigated to enable the equitable therapeutic application of phages in clinical practice. This session will showcase compelling case studies of successful clinical applications, patient narratives, and insights from regulatory authorities and policy leaders.
We will conclude with a panel discussion which will highlight the incredible progress that has enabled delivery readiness of phage therapy and galvanise immediate actions needed to use phages as antibiotic alternatives.
Contact Dr Simon Dryden (simon.dryden@imperial.ac.uk) for more information. The day's finalised agenda is below:
Please note that this event is invite-only.
Agenda:
08.30-09.00 | Registration | |
09.00-09.15 | Welcome | Prof Alison Holmes Fleming Initiative |
09.15-12.50 | Block 1: Phage Mechanisms | Chair: Prof Ramesh Wigneshweraraj |
09.15-09.45 | Overview of phage therapy in the UK, Challenges and Opportunities | Prof Martha Clokie University of Leicester |
09.45-10.15 | Overview of AI in phage discovery, Challenges and Opportunities | Prof Thomas Sicheritz-Ponten University of Cøpenhagen |
10.15-10.40 | AI Recapitulates Experimental Discovery of a Novel Gene Transfer Mechanism | Dr Tiago Dias Da Costa Imperial College London |
10.40-11.00 | Towards and AI co-scientist | Dr Alan Kartikesalingam Google DeepMind |
11.00-11.30 | Coffee Break | |
11.30-11.50 | Computational infrastructure for phage research, scaling prediction and access | Prof Bent Petersen University of Cøpenhagen |
11.50-12.10 | Viral Warfare - causes for and consequences of phage competition | Dr Jakob Rostøl Imperial College London |
12.10-12.30 | Understanding bacterial countermeasures for phage therapy development | Prof Hanne Ingmer University of Cøpenhagen |
12.30-12.50 | Phage therapy in biodefence | Lt. Col. Kate Clay MoD |
12.50-14.00 | Lunch and Networking | |
14.00-17.15 | Block 2: Phage therapy – Challenges and opportunities | Chair: Prof Martha Clokie |
14.00-14.20 | Vintage Innovation: A One Health approach to public health challenges | Dr Tine Rikke Jørgensen University of Cøpenhagen |
14.20-14.40 | Regulatory pathways and hurdles for phage therapy | Dr Carmen Coxon MHRA |
14.40-15.00 | Translating phage promise into practice and translation | Dr Mark Sutton UKHSA |
15.00-15.45 | Coffee Break | |
15.45-16.15 | Clinical implementation of phage therapy: Perspectives from a clinician and patient | Dr Anna Reed Imperial College London Dr Kavita Dave Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust Peter Knox Patient Representative |
16.15-17.00 | Panel discussion – Bench to Bedside: Key Actions to Make Phages an Antibiotic Alternative | Prof Ramesh Wigneshweraraj (Moderator) Prof Martha Clokie University of Leicester Dr Clare Trippet CPI Dr Rita Ramalhete Nature Comms Charles Perrard Inteliphage |
17.00-17.15 | Close | Prof Ramesh Wigneshweraraj Imperial College London |
17.15-19.00 | Reception |