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This book traces the story of bacteriophages from Paris, where they were discovered in 1917, through Nobel Prize-winning breakthroughs stemming from phage research, to today´s resurgent research, spearheaded by biotech startups and dedicated physicians.

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Before the arrival of penicillin in the 1940s, phage therapy was one of the few weapons doctors had against bacterial infections. It saved the life of Hollywood legend Tom Mix before being abandoned by Western science. Now, researchers and physicians are rediscovering the treatment, which pits phage viruses against their natural bacterial hosts, as a potential weapon against antibiotic-resistant infections.

The Forgotten Cure traces the story of phages from Paris, where they were discovered in 1917; to Tbilisi, Georgia, where one of phage therapy´s earliest proponents died at the hands of Stalin; to the Nobel podium, where prominent scientists have been recognized for breakthroughs stemming from phage research. Today, a crop of biotech startups and dedicated physicians is racing to win regulatory approval for phage therapy before superbugs exhaust the last drug in the medical arsenal. Will they clear the hurdles in time?

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Prologue.- Helpful Little Bodies.- Inside Stalin´s Empire.- The Fading of Phage Therapy.- Naked Genes.- They´re Not a Panacea.- In Poland: Phages for Diabetes?.- The Renaissance of Phage Therapy.- The Startups.- Four Companies, Four Strategies.- Cows and Chickens.- Approval, At Last.- In Treatment.- Epilogue.- Index.

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