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The emerging landscape of engineered bacteria cancer therapies

Nature Biotechnology volume 43, pages 672–676 (2025)Cite this article

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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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Author information

Author notes

  1. Rosa L. Vincent

    Present address: Center for Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

  2. These authors contributed equally: Edward R. Ballister, Alexander Michels, Rosa L. Vincent.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Edward R. Ballister, Alexander Michels, Rosa L. Vincent, Lior Kreindler, Sreyan Chowdhury & Tal Danino

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Edward R. Ballister

  3. Cancer Research Institute, New York, NY, USA

    Samik Upadhaya & Ana Rosa Saez-Ibañez

  4. Google Research, Mountain View, CA, USA

    Tao Tu & Juraj Gottweis

  5. Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Tal Danino

  6. Data Science Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Tal Danino

Authors
  1. Edward R. Ballister
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  2. Alexander Michels
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  10. Tal Danino
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Corresponding author

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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