About this Research Topic
The microbial community that lives on and in the human body exerts a major impact on human health, from metabolism to immunity. In order to leverage the close associations between microbes and their host, development of therapeutics targeting the microbiota has surged in recent years. In vivo production and delivery of therapeutics by microorganisms has several advantages over traditional systemic treatment. Microbes can be engineered to act like living therapeutics designed to perform specific actions in the human body. Recent efforts seek to engineer bacteria to prevent pathogenic infection, cure inflammatory bowel disease, treat metabolic diseases and treat cancer. Moreover, synthetic microbial community is an alternative strategy that has seen tremendous clinical success for treating diseases such as recurrent clostridium difficile infections, inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer.
In addition, genetically engineered living materials (ELM) are designed and created to address the living therapeutic problems. Based on precise control at the genetic and molecular levels to improve production efficiency and achieve expanded production, new biomaterials have been further exerted in the fields of biological tissue regeneration, drug carrier design, and reconstruction of human tissues and organs. Living biomaterials can be engineered to produce therapeutic factors, inhibit or defend against pathogens, and sense the delivery of specially designed therapeutic drugs at specific sites, with broad prospects. To serve medicine and precision therapy, living treatment is gradually becoming a hot research. Living materials can provide solutions for cancer treatment, intestinal diseases, vaccine development.
In order to promote the communication and application of synthetic biology in medicine, it is necessary to organize a topic on engineering bacteria for live therapy. This Research Topic will collect the latest research on how to design and build more effective live therapy for the diagnosis and treatment of human disease. This Research Topic will mainly cover the following research fields: (1) engineering microbe to diagnose and treat human disease, (2) synthesize microbial consortia for the treatment of human disease, (3) synthesize live materials used for the diagnosis and treatment of human disease. We are more interested in research including the following topics:
• Engineer the bacteria to treat the disease including the prevention of pathogenic infection, metabolic diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, etc.
• Exploration of synthetic toolbox for the commensal bacteria and design gene circuits for therapeutic application.
• Engineer bacteria to diagnose the disease.
• The principle for the construction of synthetic microbial consortia.
• Synthesize the microbial consortia for therapeutic application.
• Synthesize living materials for therapeutic application, which includes cells, bacteria, biofilms and bacterial polysaccharides-based living materials.
In addition, genetically engineered living materials (ELM) are designed and created to address the living therapeutic problems. Based on precise control at the genetic and molecular levels to improve production efficiency and achieve expanded production, new biomaterials have been further exerted in the fields of biological tissue regeneration, drug carrier design, and reconstruction of human tissues and organs. Living biomaterials can be engineered to produce therapeutic factors, inhibit or defend against pathogens, and sense the delivery of specially designed therapeutic drugs at specific sites, with broad prospects. To serve medicine and precision therapy, living treatment is gradually becoming a hot research. Living materials can provide solutions for cancer treatment, intestinal diseases, vaccine development.
In order to promote the communication and application of synthetic biology in medicine, it is necessary to organize a topic on engineering bacteria for live therapy. This Research Topic will collect the latest research on how to design and build more effective live therapy for the diagnosis and treatment of human disease. This Research Topic will mainly cover the following research fields: (1) engineering microbe to diagnose and treat human disease, (2) synthesize microbial consortia for the treatment of human disease, (3) synthesize live materials used for the diagnosis and treatment of human disease. We are more interested in research including the following topics:
• Engineer the bacteria to treat the disease including the prevention of pathogenic infection, metabolic diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, etc.
• Exploration of synthetic toolbox for the commensal bacteria and design gene circuits for therapeutic application.
• Engineer bacteria to diagnose the disease.
• The principle for the construction of synthetic microbial consortia.
• Synthesize the microbial consortia for therapeutic application.
• Synthesize living materials for therapeutic application, which includes cells, bacteria, biofilms and bacterial polysaccharides-based living materials.
Keywords: live biotherapeutics, engineered bacteria, synthetic microbial consortia, living materials, human diseases
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
