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Bioengingeering bacteria for a cure—it's not that easy

Nature Medicine volume 18, page 1454 (2012)Cite this article

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With that logic in mind, Voigt, in collaboration with Chris Anderson and Adam Arkin at the University of California–Berkeley, developed a genetic circuit in Escherichia coli that causes the bacteria to hunt and destroy cancer1. The bacterial cells are programmed to circulate through the bloodstream and detect the low oxygen levels in tumors. Once in contact, the bacteria respond by producing a protein called invasin, which causes them to invade the tumor cells.

Illustrating the reliability of the system, when Voigt and his collaborators recovered the bacteria from the cancer cells, all the bacteria they found had expressed the invasin protein. As a next step, the E. coli could be programmed to release a cytotoxin to kill the cancer.

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References

  1. Anderson, J.C. et al. J Mol Biol. 355, 619–627 (2006).

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  1. Daniel Grushkin
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Grushkin, D. Bioengingeering bacteria for a cure—it's not that easy. Nat Med 18, 1454 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1012-1454

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