Improving Antibiotic Effectiveness with CRISPR-Phage to Target Beta-Lactam Resistance in Escherichia coli

Antibiotic resistance is a growing global health crisis that threatens the effectiveness of bacterial infection treatments. The blaTEM gene in Escherichia coli codes the beta-lactamase enzymes, which lower the effect of beta-lactam antibiotics such as ampicillin. I am reporting the development of the CRISPR-Phage system targeting the blaTEM gene to restore antibiotic efficacy. Using a highly designed CRISPR-Cas9 construct combined with bacteriophage elements, I successfully disrupted the blaTEM gene, which was further validated through sequencing and antibiotic sensitivity assays. This approach shows the efficiency of CRISPR-Phage as a valuable tool in the fight against antibiotic resistance and points to some future applications for clinical and environmental use.