University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign scientists, including Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) member Cecilia Leal, will partner with investigators from several industrial and academic institutions on a five-year human health initiative backed by merit-based research funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. In addition to Illinois, partners include Ginkgo Bioworks, Baylor University, University of Minnesota, Oregon State University, and Oregon Health & Science University.
The project, “Microbe/phage Investigation for Generalized Health TherapY (MIGHTY),” aims to harness the natural predators of bacteria–known as phages–as precision tools to shape the human microbiome and promote health.
“We are very excited to be hosting this project at the [Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology],” said IGB Director Gene Robinson. “The new ARPA-H agency aims to fund creative, transformative ‘moonshot’ initiatives, and the MIGHTY project more than fits the bill. We look forward to the transformative research that this contract will enable.”
Our bodies contain trillions of bacteria that can influence our health. Many are beneficial, but disruptions in their numbers or invasion by pathogens can cause a variety of diseases. For decades, antibiotics have been our go-to defense against harmful bacteria, but they also indiscriminately kill the natural bacterial residents of the microbiome that are important for maintaining health. This often leads to microbiome imbalances, or dysbiosis, that can fuel chronic diseases. Meanwhile, antibiotic resistance continues to rise, compounding the global public health crisis.
A Precision Alternative to Antibiotics
Currently, there are few reliable tools that can restore the microbiome balance. Illinois researchers are now turning to phages, the naturally occurring viruses that selectively infect and kill bacteria and already exist throughout the human body. Phages have potential transformative uses as precision antimicrobials because they target specific pathogens while leaving beneficial bacteria unharmed. However, the process of isolating phages from the environment for therapeutic purposes is currently slow and inefficient, and single-phage treatments often fail due to rapid bacterial resistance, leaving the generalized use of phages still out of reach.
Overcoming these challenges, the MIGHTY team will create a platform that enables rapid isolation of bacteria and phages at an unprecedented scale and apply mechanistic modeling and artificial intelligence/machine learning methods to identify effective phage combinations that eradicate harmful bacteria.
Leal, Professor and Racheff Faculty Scholar of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering, will contribute to this project by designing new materials optimized to encapsulate and deliver phages with strong antibacterial activity to the oral cavity.
Starting with Oral Health – And Reaching Further
As an initial application, the team will focus on the oral microbiome where bacterial pathogens drive tooth decay and gum disease, and also contribute to chronic illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, Type II diabetes, and oral and colorectal cancers. The researchers aim to develop an easy-to-use, low-cost phage product – such as a chewable gummy – that can improve oral health for everyone.
“Our long-term goal is to usher phage-based therapeutics into mainstream medicine as routine and widely accessible treatments,” said principal investigator and project lead Asma Hatoum-Aslan, an associate professor of microbiology. “A simple product for oral care is just the start–this platform will support solutions for gut, metabolic, and autoimmune diseases as well.”
The team will leverage Illinois researchers’ deep expertise in bacterial genetics, phage biology, microbiome studies, computational biology, and machine learning, and integrate cutting-edge technologies, such as Ginkgo’s ultra-high-throughput screening technology, and activity-based chemical probes developed at Baylor. The partnership with Gingko Bioworks was facilitated by the External Relations and Strategic Partnerships team at the IGB, led by Tracy Parish.
“Collaborating with Ginkgo Bioworks and our academic partners brings a new dimension to our research,” said Cari Vanderpool, Department Head and McKnight Presidential Endowed Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of Minnesota, and co-investigator on the project. “Together, we’re poised to develop innovative treatments that could fundamentally improve health by targeting the microbiome in precise and sustainable ways.”
Cecilia Leal
Racheff Faculty Fellow and Professor, Materials Science & Engineering
Areas of Research
Lung, Lung Cancer, Materials Science and Engineering, RNA
Research Program and Theme
- Program: Cancer Technology and Data Science
- Theme: Molecular Measurement
Research Focus
Cecilia Leal researches lipids, peptides, and nucleic acid assemblies to advance understanding of their function; as well as design new materials for the delivery of drugs and genes to cells. She is the Principal Investigator of the Leal Research Lab – and her team discovered a new type of non-viral siRNA delivery vehicle – that allows the localized release of drugs in precisely controlled, patient-specific time sequences. Leal has developed liposomal formulations to efficiently release cancer drugs as a response to acoustic stimulus. She also studies oxygen transfer in diseased lung tissue using sensors to measure oxygen permeation between biological surfaces.
Editor’s Note:
This story was first published by the School of Molecular & Cellular Biology on October 14, 2025 and is available here.