Benjamin K. Chan () is a research scientist at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He was born in 1980 to a U.S. Asian father, an engineer, and an American mother. He is known for his work in phage therapy exploiting genetic trade-offs to treat

antibiotic resistant Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when microbes evolve mechanisms that protect them from the effects of antimicrobials. All classes of microbes can evolve resistance. Fungi evolve antifungal resistance. Viruses evolve antiviral resistance. P ...

bacterial infections. He currently lives in

Guilford Guildford is a town in Surrey, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Guildford, the Diocese of Guildford and the Parliamentary constituency of Guildford. Guildford, Guilford, or Gildford may also refer to: Places Australia * Guildfor ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

Phage therapy

In January 2016, Chan treated an antibiotic resistant infection of a Dacron aortic graft caused by the

superbug Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when microbes evolve mechanisms that protect them from the effects of antimicrobials. All classes of microbes can evolve resistance. Fungi evolve antifungal resistance. Viruses evolve antiviral resistance. P ...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa ''Pseudomonas aeruginosa'' is a common encapsulated, gram-negative, aerobic–facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped bacterium that can cause disease in plants and animals, including humans. A species of considerable medical importance, ''P. aerugi ...

'', this treatment reinvigorated phage therapy in Western medicine. Following this successful treatment, a second case of superbug infection was treated by Chan and others at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. This case involved use of nebulized phage to treat a multidrug resistant lung infection in Paige Rogers, a woman with

cystic fibrosis Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a rare genetic disorder that affects mostly the lungs, but also the pancreas, liver, kidneys, and intestine. Long-term issues include difficulty breathing and coughing up mucus as a result of frequent lung infections. O ...

and the research involved was featured in the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

series, "

Follow This ''Follow This'' is an American documentary television series produced by BuzzFeed. The show was released on Netflix on August 23, 2018. Netflix ordered 20 episodes, initially releasing the first seven episodes in August 2018, with seven more in ...

." He has since been featured in documentaries produced by

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...

, Freethink, and

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

. Following the publication of his first two cases, Chan and others have since treated multiple infections at Yale New Haven Hospital successfully.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chan, Benjamin Yale University faculty Evolutionary biologists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American biologists People from Guilford, Connecticut American people of Chinese descent