Our interview series featuring stories of founders who mix code with science to drive profound high impact improvements across human and planetary health
#1 Key Takeaways from Alexandros Pantalis, CEO of Phagos 👇
1. How Phagos Is Taking on the $200 Billion Antibiotics Problem in Farming
- Antibiotic use in animal farming drives 70% of global antibiotic resistance, costing $200 billion annually.
- “Our goal is to replace antibiotics in animals to curb resistance across the board,” says Alexandros. Phagos’s solution? Bacteriophages that precisely target harmful bacteria without harming the good.
2. Why Precision Targeting Matters in Health
- Standard antibiotics act like bulldozers, wiping out both harmful and beneficial bacteria. Phagos uses bacteriophages—“precision tools” that remove only harmful bacteria, preserving the good ones.
- Alexandros sees this as “a smarter, safer way to approach health.” Phagos is paving the way for targeted, sustainable alternatives to conventional antibiotics.
3. How Phagos’s ‘Cocktail Finder’ Revolutionizes Speed and Accuracy
- The ‘Cocktail Finder’ is Phagos’s secret weapon—AI-driven tech that matches bacteriophages to specific bacterial strains by decoding their DNA.
- “Our technology can develop tailored phage therapies in days, not years,” Alexandros explains. This approach allows Phagos to keep up with bacterial evolution and deliver targeted treatments quickly.
4. Why Phagos’s Personalized Approach Is Unique in Phage Therapy
- Unlike others using generic phage cocktails, Phagos tailors treatments to specific bacterial threats. “We’re the only ones creating fully customized phage therapies,” says Alexandros.
- By combining machine learning and rapid testing, Phagos has cut development time from years to days, setting a new standard for scalable, adaptable phage therapies.
5. The Surprising Inspiration Behind Phagos
- Alexandros first learned about bacteriophages in a documentary and days later met a phage expert in an entrepreneurship program.
- “What are the odds?” he laughs. That chance encounter sparked the journey to founding Phagos, a company now on a mission to reshape how we tackle antibiotic resistance.
6. The Power of Focus and Persistence in InnovationAlexandros learned that innovation often means saying “no” to distractions and staying laser-focused on the mission. “People won’t care right away, and that’s okay,” he reflects. For Alexandros, success with Phagos means building awareness and transforming health, one precise phage at a time.