By Sarah Webb
By loading genes onto nanoparticles, then attaching the nanoparticles to bacteria, scientists have devised a new way of shuttling potentially therapeutic material into mammalian cells. Because the nanoparticles could carry a variety of molecular cargo, the system could have a wide range of applications, including cancer therapy and insertion of cellular biosensors.
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Rashid Bashir and his colleagues at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., worked with Listeria monocytogenes, which are bacteria with molecular machinery that can penetrate a cell’s defenses. The recipient cells naturally package the cargo-coated bacteria, which the researchers call “microbots,” in a fatty envelope and bring them inside. Bacterial proteins then poke holes in the cellular packaging and release the nanoparticles and their cargoes.