How we are engineering bacteria to eat cancer

By Brian Ingalls, Professor, Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo
Marc Aucoin, Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo

Modern medicine has made significant advances in cancer treatments over the decades. But all cancer therapies still face one critical challenge: how to target cancers without damaging healthy cells.

Imperfect solutions lead to side-effects: surgery and radiation can damage nearby healthy tissue, while chemotherapy can indiscriminately target fast-growing cells, damaging healthy hair follicles and stomach lining.

An alternative approach involves recruiting a surprising ally: bacteria. Some species of bacteria cannot survive in the presence of oxygen. They live in low-oxygen…

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