Inside-Out Attack: Engineered Bacteria Target Tumors
University of Waterloo scientists are engineering Clostridium sporogenes to colonize the oxygen-free centers of tumors and consume nutrients, effectively eating tumors from the inside out. By adding an oxygen-tolerance gene from a related bacterium, they hope the bacteria can survive near the tumor exterior, while a quorum-sensing system activates the gene only when enough bacteria are present, preventing growth in oxygen-rich areas such as the bloodstream. The team plans pre-clinical trials testing this approach, though substantial work remains before any clinical use.