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The emerging landscape of engineered bacteria cancer therapies

Our ability to use engineered bacteria for cancer therapy is rapidly expanding. A survey of preclinical, clinical and commercial efforts provides an overview of the state of the field, revealing trends that could inform future directions.

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Fig. 1: Landscape of bacterial engineering for cancer therapy.
Fig. 2: Clinical trials of engineered bacteria for cancer therapy.

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Correspondence to Tal Danino.

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Competing interests

T.D. and S.C. have a financial interest in GenCirq Inc.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Notes on search methodology.

Supplementary Tables 1-6

Bacterial cancer therapy preclinical papers, clinical trials, companies, BCG clinical trials, search queries.

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Ballister, E.R., Michels, A., Vincent, R.L. et al. The emerging landscape of engineered bacteria cancer therapies. Nat Biotechnol 43, 672–676 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-025-02623-x

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