• Question: how do you find the bacteria that kills cancer cells?

    Asked by jakepearl to Barbara on 13 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Barbara Guinn

      Barbara Guinn answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I don’t work on bacteria which kill cancer cells so I had to look at some web sites (I started with the bbc as they are often a reliable source). Some people modify bacteria to produce proteins which boost the immune system to kill cancer (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3867331.stm) and some people say there are beneficial bacteria which can help kill cancer cells (http://www.canceractive.com/cancer-active-page-link.aspx?n=1841).To find a bacteria which could kill cancer cells I guess you would incubate lots of different bacteria with cancer cells in little plastic dishes and see if in one of the dishes the cancer cells die. You could show the cancer cells had been killed as they could no longer be detected based on size (under a microscope). Cancer cells are usually much bigger than bacteria cells.

Comments