News & Updates

We are delighted to announce that KlebPhaCol has received nine new Klebsiella bacteriophages kindly contributed by Henry Scott from The University of Newcastle. These new additions will further expand the diversity of the KlebPhaCol collection and contribute to our mission of building a comprehensive resource for the study of Klebsiella bacteriophages and the development of future phage-based therapies. A big thank you to Henry Scott and the team at The University of Newcastle for their contribution and support of collaborative phage research.

KlebPhaCol: a community-driven resource for Klebsiella research identified a novel phage family has been published in Nucleic Acids Research (Volume 53, Issue 21, gkaf1122). The paper formally describes the KlebPhaCol open-source resource comprising 52 fully characterised bacteriophages and 74 Klebsiella isolates, covering six phage families — including the newly identified Felixviridae family — and targeting 20 sequence types and 19 capsular-locus types across six Klebsiella species. This publication establishes KlebPhaCol as a citable, peer-reviewed resource for the phage biology community and provides a DOI-linked data release accessible via portal.phage-collection.org.

Starting with our next shipment batch in November 2025, we will be introducing a small fee to help cover packaging and processing costs. • A fee of GBP 50 will apply to standard requests (including 1–52 phages and up to 10 strains). • For larger requests involving more than 10 strains, a fee of GBP 100 will apply. Please note that shipping costs will continue to be the responsibility of the requester. Early career researchers (ECRs) may request a fee waiver during application.

One of the KlebPhaCol phages, RothD, did not have any previously classified close relatives. We therefore sought to classify this phage and submitted the proposal for a new family, Felixviridae, encompassing two new genera: Nakavirus (containing Nakavirus sapi where RothD belongs) and Chronisvirus (including phage vB_Kpn_Chronis).

Abstract: The growing threat of multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, coupled with its role in gut colonisation, has intensified the search for new treatments, including bacteriophage therapy. KlebPhaCol provides an open-source resource comprising 53 phages and 74 Klebsiella isolates fully characterised across five families and target 27 sequence types and 28 capsular locus types.