[…] scientists from the University of California San Diego and their colleagues in Australia have engineered bacteria that can detect the presence of tumor DNA in a live organism.
Their innovation, which detected cancer in the colons of mice, could pave the way to new biosensors capable of identifying various infections, cancers and other diseases.
The [advance] is described Aug. 11, 2023, in the journal Science. Bacteria previously have been designed to carry out various diagnostic and therapeutic functions, but lacked the ability to identify specific DNA sequences and mutations outside of cells. The new “Cellular Assay for Targeted CRISPR-discriminated Horizontal gene transfer,” or “CATCH,” was designed to do just that.
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Tumors are known to disperse, or shed, their DNA into the environments surrounding them. Many technologies can analyze purified DNA in the lab, but these cannot detect DNA where it is released. Under the CATCH strategy, the researchers engineered bacteria using CRISPR technology to test free-floating DNA sequences on a genomic level and compare those samples with predetermined cancer sequences […]
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The researchers are now adapting their bacteria biosensor strategy with new circuits and different types of bacteria for detecting and treating human cancers and infections.
From the press release:
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