Probiotics are hot. Bacteria that we consume in foods like yogurt, miso and pickles can help our gut microbiomes stay happy and healthy. Now there might be another role for those probiotic bacteria: cancer detection. Two papers in the journal Science Translational Medicine explain how researchers hope to get bacteria to be diagnostic tools. [Tal Danino et al, Programmable probiotics for detection of cancer in urine], [Alexis Courbet et al, Detection of pathological biomarkers in human clinical samples via amplifying genetic switches and logic gates]
Sangeeta Bhatia of M.I.T. is a liver expert and senior author of one of the papers. Her lab had been trying to figure out how to get nanoparticles to the liver that would send a signal detectable in urine if they encountered a tumor. Cancers that start in the colon or pancreas can metastasize to the liver, which can be deadly.
SB: “And one of the students on the team had the idea that if you can imagine that there's a material, a diagnostic material, that would grow itself then you wouldn’t need very much of it to arrive at the tumor and sort of self-amplify. And we realized that bacteria are in many ways just such a device. That they can naturally home in on tumors…so we thought maybe we can hijack that ability of bacteria to home in on tumors and self-amplify to create a urinary diagnostic.”
Bhatia’s lab teamed up with a lab at the University of California, San Diego, with expertise in synthetic biology—basically altering microbes to have specific functions.
SB: “So instead of just going out and finding natural strains that would colonize tumors and do what wanted, we could pick strains that have good homing and then endow them with the capabilities that we were interested in.”
The two labs took a strain of E. coli called Nissle that is already used as a probiotic to help people with digestive issues. They programmed the bacteria to express a specific enzyme after it occupied liver tumors. If the bacteria colonized a tumor in mice, the mice would produce urine that, thanks to the enzyme, would turn red.
The system worked—the bacteria found tumors in mice known to have them, and the urine changed color, indicating the presence of cancer. Cancer-free mice that also ate the engineered probiotics showed no negative health effects a year later.
The technique is at this stage just a proof of concept, says Bhatia. But it’s got a lot of promise.
SB: “Well what we're really excited about the idea that you can take synthetic biology some day into both diagnostics and also therapeutics. So in this particular case the circuit that we put the bacteria gave off a diagnostic signal that could be detected remotely. But you can also imagine and were working on circuits that give off chemotherapy that would kill the tumor directly. And making smart circuits do that in response of ways. And you can even imagine having mixtures of bacteria that do both diagnosis and therapy. So I think there's really a whole world of possibilities once you start thinking about using bacteria as a platform upon which to engineer functions.”
—Cynthia Graber
如需了解更多留学考试的相关信息，那么欢迎拨打【一诺留学】的免费咨询热线400-003-6508或010-62680991进行咨询，或者点击页面的【在线咨询】与顾问老师直接对话。
更多热点资讯欢迎关注：
新浪官方微博：@北京诚品一诺教育咨询
http://weibo.com/yinuoedu
微信订阅号：留学圈 (微信帐号：yinuoliuxue )
姓名：孟帆
加入一诺教育前任职于太傻咨询北京总部，几年间帮助几百位学生成功申请到美国、英国、加拿大顶级院校，包括MIT、耶鲁、哥伦比亚大学、宾夕法尼亚大学、康奈尔大学、芝加哥大学、加州伯克利大学、卡内基梅隆大学、南加州大学、UIUC、罗切斯特大学、雪城大学等等。良好的专业度和积极的服务热情赢得了众多同学的信任和喜爱。
服务及指导超过500名客户的留学咨询、申请及签证服务
录取学校主要分布于美国top100,英国top10,加拿大top10,香港top3和新加坡top3。包含许多常青藤院校录取，offer全奖录取。
研究生案例：
北京大学 金融+数学双学位 University of Chicago 金融数学硕士录取。
北京交通大学 物流管理与工程专业 University of California, Berkeley。硕士录取
北京交通大学 应用数学专业 University of Notre Dame，University of Southern California，University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill，Tufts University。数学专业PH.D全奖录取。
北京交通大学 计算机专业 University of Florida，Syracuse University，CS专业PH.D全奖录取。
武汉大学 生命科学专业 新加坡国立大学 全奖录取。
华中科技大学 电气工程专业 Duke University，University of Pennsylvania，University of California-Los Angeles EE专业硕士录取。
中央美院 建筑学专业 University of Cambridge.建筑学研究式硕士，London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London，城市规划硕士。
天津大学 土木工程专业 University of California–Berkeley.硕士录取， SUNY-Buffalo，土木工程PH.D全奖录取。Ohio State University-Columbus，硕士学费全免。
武汉大学 经济学专业 College of William and Mary，University of Rochester，University of Wisconsin-Madison，硕士录取。
天津大学 船舶与海洋工程专业 Case Western Reserve University，新加坡国立大学。海洋工程PH.D全奖录取。
南开大学 光电 University of California-Berkeley，University of California-Los Angeles，硕士录取
北京航空航天大学 数学与应用数学 加州大学欧文分校, 应用数学PH.D全奖。
山东大学威海分校：应用数学 University of Notre Dame，Tufts University，数学PH.D全奖。
本科案例：
北师大附中 Cornell University，Rice University。本科新生录取
北京四中 MIT，University of Pennsylvania，Cornell University。本科新生录取。
人大附中 Yale University，University of Pennsylvania，Brown University。本科新生录取。
南开中学 Northwestern University。本科新生录取
汇佳私立高中 Brown University，Northwestern University，本科新生录取
哈尔滨工业大学 University of California-Berkeley，University of California-Los Angeles，Georgia Institute of Technology，本科转学录取。
版权所有@2012-2016 一诺留学网 京ICP备12034294号-1
联系电话：400-003-6508 010-62680991 传真：010-82483329 邮箱：service.bj@yinuoedu.net
关于我们
客户访谈
加入我们
渠道合作
