entertainment -WSS

entertainment

author：entertainment 2025-09-30 21:58:12 - browse：39558

The bacterium A. baylyi was engineered to detect a common cancer mutation. Courtesy of Josephine Wright

Dan Worthley, a gastroenterologist and cancer scientist at Colonoscopy Clinic in Brisbane, Australia, does thousands of colonoscopies a year, seeking and destroying precancerous polyps. It’s a practically surefire way to prevent colorectal cancer, but an unpleasant experience for patients. The future, Worthley hopes, will be much less onerous — and he’s developing a technology that, if it works one day, might make the experience more of a piece of cake.

Or, rather, a cup of yogurt — containing engineered bacteria that can detect and deliver a treatment for colorectal polyps or cancer. Worthley and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Adelaide published results in Science on Thursday that show they are one step closer to that far-off dream. In their paper, the researchers show a proof-of-concept engineered bacterium that can detect cancer DNA in the guts of mice and react to it by turning on certain cellular circuitry.

“I think it’s really cool. It introduces a new concept for how you can use cells as a sensor for something happening inside other cells,” said Mikhail Shapiro, a chemical and medical engineer at the California Institute of Technology who did not work on the study. “That can flip a switch inside those cells. In this case, it’s used for diagnostic output, but in principle it could be used for other things.”

Unlock this article by subscribing to STAT+ and enjoy your first 30 days free!

GET STARTED Log In

Previous article： Continuity nursing helped my family in our darkest PICU moments
Next article： How CRISPR works, explained in two minutes

WSS

Google's generative AI to analyze medical images — and talk to docs

Restaurant meals are packed with calories, and we still keep eating them

Election results set back Medicaid expansion plans

A fugitive mob suspect in Greece is betrayed by his passion for hometown Naples soccer champions

What Henrietta Lacks settlement says about racism in medicine

Tuberculosis patients need more than just free medication

focus

entertainment

focus

In age of alternative facts, a scholarly course on calling out crap

ER docs worry over extreme heat as a 'mass casualty event'

Over 800 arrested across France in 3rd night of riots after fatal police shooting of teen

Wild otter attack leads to woman being airlifted to hospital, 2 others treated for injuries

United colonoscopy coverage change 'may cost lives,' doctors say

Doctors push to include dialysis machines in emergency stockpile

DIEP, the 'gold standard' of breast reconstruction, is under threat

Failure, not just success, should guide future doctors

Heart attack and stroke risk calculators need revising

Severe weather updates: 1 million customers without power in 11 states as storms pummel East Coast

focus

White House drug shortage group privately met with industry

CDC: Uninsured rate hit 'record low' right as states cut Medicaid

Feed a cold, starve a fever? Here’s what science says

Nearly two

Mexico finds 491 migrants being held at vacant lot, almost all are from Guatemala

Judge in Trump's classified documents case questions use of out

knowledge

leisure time

focus

Wikipedia