Going viral: Designing bioactive surfaces with bacteriophage

•Bacteriophage offer distinct advantages for developing bioactive surfaces.•Phage can be used in biosensor platforms or as antimicrobial/antibiofouling surfaces.•We summarize the challenges of designing and characterizing such surfaces.•Review approaches used to immobilize and orient bacteriophage on surfaces. Bacteriophage-functionalized bioactive surfaces are functional materials that can be used as antimicrobial surfaces in medical applications (e.g., indwelling medical devices or wound dressings) or as biosensors for bacterial capture and detection. Despite offering immense potential, designing efficient phage-functionalized bioactive surfaces is hampered by a number of challenges. This review offers an overview of the current state of knowledge in this field and presents a critical perspective of the technological promises and challenges.