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Biologists Program E. Coli To Patrol For Pathogens

Posted by Soulskill on from the working-on-method-to-send-it-back-in-time-to-kill-john-connor dept.

MTorrice writes "When hospital patients develop nasty, antibiotic-resistant infections, the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa is often the culprit. In a new approach to killing the pathogen, researchers genetically modified harmless Escherichia coli bacteria to detect and destroy P. aeruginosa. The E. coli spot a specific chemical released by the pathogen and then secrete a toxin to kill it (abstract)."

1 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The Time has come.. by wbr1 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Bacteria have been having their own wars since before humanities time. So have fungi, plants, animals....

    Here we are (hopefully) harnessing it for our own safety.

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.