Bacteriophage discovery

Arber s work was inspired by an earlier discovery of the famous Italian-American microbiologist Salvador Luria (1912-1991). In 1942, Luria discovered that bacteria, like humans, seem to have mechanisms for protecting themselves from attacking viruses. Viruses that infect bacteria have a special name bacteriophages. Arber discovered that this defensive system consisted of two parts (1) a group of enzymes (restriction enzymes) that... 

Lowman, H. (1997). Bacteriophage display and discovery of peptide leads for drug development. Ann. Rev. Biophys. Biomol. Struct. 26, 401-424. 

The relatively recent discovery of large numbers of viruses (Bergh et ah, 1989), especially bacteriophages, in aU marine waters has opened up an entirely new area of modehng exploration in recent years. Maintenance of these high viral abundances may involve high incidences of host (bacteria) mortahty, which could have a profound effect on the microbial loop (Section 3.2) and the nitrogen cycle (Proctor ei a/., 1988 Suttle, 1994). 

In Vivo Bacteriophage Display for the Discovery of Novel Peptide-Based Tumor-Targeting Agents... 

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