IISER Kolkata develops friendly bacteria to fight cancer

kolkata: a research team from the indian institute of science education and research (iiser) kolkata has developed a “friendly bacteria” capable of safely and effectively fighting cancer from within the patient's body, the institute said in a statement.alongside, the researchers are creating a detection system to monitor the progress of the therapy. together, these innovations represent a major step in combining therapy and diagnostics for cancer treatment, iiser kolkata said.the project, titled reset (reprogramming the suppressive environment of tumour microenvironment), aims to overcome one of the biggest challenges in cancer therapy. “cancer often hides behind immune cells called t regulatory cells (tregs), which suppress the body's natural defences, making treatments like immunotherapy or chemotherapy less effective,” the statement noted.the iiser kolkata team is engineering probiotics to detect tumours and disrupt treg activity, thereby reactivating the immune system against cancer. in essence, they are transforming beneficial microbes into living, targeted medicines that could work from within the body to make cancer therapy safer and more efficient.to ensure their research remains socially relevant and ethically responsible, the students have engaged with oncologists, surgeons, cancer survivors and ngos. they also organised awareness drives, school outreach programmes, and collaborations with hair donors and patient support groups.“by targeting the tregs pathway with engineered bacteria, we hope to bring forward a completely new class of cancer therapeutics that could revolutionise cancer treatment,” the team said.the group of 11 undergraduate students from iiser kolkata will represent india at the international genetically engineered machine (igem) grand jamboree 2025 — the world's largest synthetic biology competition — to be held in paris in october.