Progress in the first six months
For administrative reason there was a delay in completing the contractual arrangements between the institution of the project coordinator and the individual partners. It also took some time for all of the partners to fully understand the process and their respective responsibilities. As a consequence, there was a delay in the start of the secondments.
In the first six month there were secondments between EIG and Cardiff and KAU and NCDC.
Dr Ekaterine Tevdoradze from EIG visited the group at CU for 1 month for training in how to develop a standardised soil microcosm with which to assess germinant efficacy (Task 2.1). Studies suggested that we need to optimise the ratio of phage to target bacteria to achieve efficient killing of the pathogen in soil.
Dr Leila Kvachadze from EIG visited the group at CU for 1 month for training in how to work safely in a UK containment level 2 laboratory (task 3.5).
Dr Fatih Buyuk, Ms Aliye Gulmez and Ms Elif Tazegul from KAU visited the group at NCDC for 1 month to receive training in characterization of the genetic diversity of B.anthracis isolates (task 3.2) and safely working with B.anthracis biosafety 2 and 3 (task 3.5). During the visit they spent two weeks in the Genome Laboratory were they were introduced to sequencing methods and the platform which is used at NCDC to genotype bacterial isolates. The final two weeks were spent visiting the biosafetly level 2 and 3 facilities for training in the various aspects of operating safely in such faciltities.
