University of Basra Organizes a Course on Environmental Sustainability

The Marine Sciences Center at the University of Basra organized a course titled “Environmental Sustainability: The Use of Bacterial Phages in Wastewater Treatment.”

The course aimed to enable participants to design a protocol for the safe use of phages and to evaluate their efficacy against target bacteria in wastewater, while taking into account regulatory and biosafety aspects.

The course, presented by Dr. Raghad Shubar Jafar, included an introduction to phages, their definition, and their mechanism of action through attachment to and lysis of bacterial cells.

She addressed the challenges of conventional wastewater treatment, noting bacterial resistance to antibiotics and persistent microbial contamination, while highlighting phage applications in treatment

to target dangerous bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella, thereby reducing biological contaminants without harmful chemicals.

The researcher emphasized the need to study the stability of phages in the environment and to avoid bacterial resistance by integrating them with other green technologies (such as biofilms).