A delivery system that directs cancer drugs to tumours virtually anywhere in the body could dramatically reduce the side effects of chemotherapy. The technique, which uses fragments of bacteria to target a tumour, avoids the need to flood the patient’s system with toxic drugs.
Himanshu Brahmbhatt and Jennifer MacDiarmid of the company Engeneic in Sydney, Australia, have found that they can make bacteria such as Salmonella enterica and E. coli divide at their ends, instead of at their centres, to produce small buds of cytoplasm which they call “Engeneic delivery vehicles” (EDVs). The EDVs are washed repeatedly to remove…
