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What is Phage One Voice?

Phage One Voice is a new group of regular people and bacteriophage researchers dedicated to unifying our voices around the world in support of phage patients and phage applications. Phage save lives, but most people have never heard of these tiny living things. In fact, those who need phage therapy the most usually don’t even know it exists. If this doesn’t sound okay, we couldn’t agree more. We are seeking your support to establish Phage One Voice as a registered non-profit that will increase phage awareness, appreciation, and accessibility. Our goal is phage-first access for all.

Our Story

Chris Shaffer is one of our co-founders and a retired educator. He found himself in the midst of the global crisis of antimicrobial resistance when he was rushed to the hospital with an E. coli infection that antibiotics couldn’t cure. After two-and-a-half years of life-threatening illness, his life was saved after seeking treatment at the Eliava Phage Therapy Institute in Tbilisi, Georgia, where phage therapy has been practiced for over a hundred years. Phage therapy cured his deadly infection in four months where antibiotics failed for over two years. Chris did the research on his own and traveled halfway around the world for a cure. He hopes that with Phage One Voice, others can gain from his experience and get access to life-saving phage more quickly and easily.

What Even Are Phage?

Bacteriophages, or phages for short, are viruses that kill bacteria—like nature’s antibiotic. The trick is finding the specific phage that will kill specific bacteria, then delivering it to someone who is fighting that bacteria. This process and the know-how behind it have been around for over one hundred years, but it has been isolated to a few laboratories around the world because phage research took a back seat once we had antibiotics, which are easier to mass-produce and deliver. However, antibiotic resistance is on the rise, creating hard-to-treat super bugs, and we need phage more than ever.

The good news is that phage are being researched more and brought back to the forefront. What we need now is collaboration between researchers, regulators, and patients to make phage more accessible for everyone.

Why Patient Voices Matter!

It’s critical for patients to have a voice because they’re the ones who need phage the most. Patients are on the front line of the antibiotic-resistance crisis and they can’t wait—they need treatment now. By centering patient voices, we highlight both the urgency and the impact of phage research, reminding scientists why their work matters so much while also grounding it in the real-world applications of phage. We intentionally bring together phage patients and phage scientists to combine our experiences, ideas, knowledge, and connections to advance phage therapy.

The Big Ideas

What We Need

The total cost for Phage One Voice to become a 501c3 is $4,000. Our first step to making sure there can be phage for all is to raise these funds. Your generous donation to this GoFundMe will go directly to helping us set up our organization as a 501c3 non-profit, incorporate in the state of California, and register as a charity so that we can operate as a non-profit in the U.S.

Why Your Support Matters

By contributing to this GoFundMe, you become a founding supporter of Phage One Voice, supporting us from the beginning. You are helping save lives!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is phage therapy approved by the FDA for treatment in the US?

A: While there are currently ongoing FDA clinical trials, there is an urgent need to accelerate awareness of phage and its lifesaving applications in medicine because people are suffering now, and they can’t afford to wait. We believe that connecting patients and researchers will accelerate the process of FDA approval for phage therapy.

Q: What is phage first?

A: Phage first is our goal, instead of seeing phage therapy as a last resort. Antibiotics can fail for years before a patient is able to access compassionate-use phage therapy. No one should have to suffer a resistant infection for any length of time.

Q: Why $4,000?

A: This will help us cover the costs associated with starting a nonprofit, including all paperwork and registration. Once registered, we will be able to take all donations in through our organization, providing tax forms to donors in return.

Q: Will you raise more funds in the future?

A: Our future fundraising will go towards organizing a team to help connect patients with phage as well as assisting in the completion of compassionate use paperwork to allow physicians to administer phage therapy.

Q: What else can I do to help?

A: Share our fundraiser and share information about phage far and wide! We believe that awareness is the first step to making phage therapy accessible to everyone who needs it.