Researchers at À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ Engineering led the discovery of an efficient new way to turn common bacteria into tiny factories pumping out powerful nanoparticles for a variety of biomedical uses.
Dr. Yilan Liu and her team engineered bacteria found in the human gut, or gastrointestinal tract, to dramatically increase the number of bubble-shaped nanoparticles they secrete.
Known as bacterial membrane vesicles (BMVs), those nanoparticles – about a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair - have applications for drug delivery, cancer therapy, vaccine development and other areas of biomedicine.
"This advancement in bacterial engineering has the potential to be a transformative platform for next-generation vaccines, therapeutics and nutrient delivery," said Liu, a chemical engineering professor and director of the Lab of Synthetic biology for Sustainable development (LSS).
"This new process could profoundly impact global health by making biomedical treatments more efficient, accessible and affordable."
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