Reflections
The World Health Organization (WHO) lists 19 species of pathogenic fungi on their fungal priority list, which are considered dangerous for the global health of humans1. Amongst these, 4 are considered of critical importance as they pose a considerable risk to humans. Candida albicans is one of them, responsible for roughly 65% of fungal infections each year. It is an opportunistic pathogen which naturally lives on and in our body. It can switch from harmless to pathogenic when the host becomes immunocompromised. As discussed in our project description, current treatments often take a physical toll on the patients which highlights the need for other options.
Utilizing bacteria as a vector for drug delivery is not unheard of and has shown great potential in many branches of medicine2,3,4. A prominent problem has been immune responses, and it may therefore be of interest to look more into bacterial species that already live on and in us to ensure the safety of the patients.
In the public eye, using bacteria as a “medicine” might sound unfavourable. In childhood we are often taught that bacteria cause illness and for those not pursuing further education in biology or science in general that gut instinct might linger for many years. Therefore, a large hurdle of this project is public perception. If further research was to be done, it would be important to be transparent through the whole process and look out for side effects. If a treatment was to hit the market using bacteria as vectors for drugs with major side effects, it might hinder the development of other such technologies.
It is important to note that there is no guarantee that our idea will work in practice. What we have done is far from a clinical trial and is closer to an exploration. Since we did not have time to test the adhesion of the bacteria to yeast, we cannot say if they will express their respective surface proteins or if there would be enough of them for the adhesion to be significant. We also cannot say if the adhesion would contribute in a meaningful way to the anti-fungal properties of Bacillus subtilis. It might instead be easier to increase the production of Iturin A in the bacteria and apply them as a cream to topical fungal infections and find other solutions to internal infections. Finally, though we have assumed that B. subtilis would be safe to use as a drug vector, that cannot be said until clinical trials have been done. These doubts highlight the need for further research into both anti-fungal treatments and into bacteria as drug vectors and we look forward to reading about future developments in these fields.
Our Values
In our project we value Safety, Transparency, Inclusivity and Education.
Safety: We practice safe research by taking care in how we handle our organisms in the lab, as well as which organisms we have chosen to work with. We also do this by selecting a non-pathogenic bacteria that already lives on and in humans for our delivery vector. Our choice to use Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model of C. albicans instead of handling the actual pathogen also reflects this value.
Transparency: To gain the public's trust, transparency is important. We fulfill this value by being open and realistic about our project's results.
Inclusivity: When aiming our research at an organism which is only pathogenic to already weakened individuals, we want to press on the need to focus resources on all parts of society. Not only the most dangerous organisms overall, but also those who affect the ones who are already weak.
Education: We use our project to educate the public on both synthetic biology and the use of bacteria as drug vectors. We have done this with lectures at high schools where students have been asked to assess their view of bacteria as medicine, as well as with informative social media posts.
References
- WHO fungal priority pathogens list to guide research, development and public health action [Internet]. [cited 2025 Oct 5]. Available from: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240060241
- Zhao X, Xie N, Zhang H, Zhou W, Ding J. Bacterial Drug Delivery Systems for Cancer Therapy: “Why” and “How”. Pharmaceutics. 2023 Sept;15(9):2214. DOI:10.3390/pharmaceutics15092214
- Patil PL, Gharat SK, Jadhav KR, Kadam VJ. Engineered Bacteria: General Overview as Therapeutic Agent and a Novel Drug Delivery System. Curr Pharm Biotechnol. 2023 Sept 1;24(11):1351–64. DOI:10.2174/1389201024666221220113517
- Yurina V. Live Bacterial Vectors—A Promising DNA Vaccine Delivery System. Med Sci. 2018 June;6(2):27. DOI:10.3390/medsci6020027